


My Promise is I Will Hurt You

by Beckyhelene



Series: My Promise is I Will Hurt You [1]
Category: Detroit Evolution - Fandom, Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Ada and Gavin are snarky surly buddy cops, Ada and Markus are mutually overly protective siblings, CyberLife Nines, DEArtfest, Detective Ada, Detroit Evolution, Detroit Evolution Artfest, Deviant Ada has mild mom friend energy, F/F, Full disclosure: Reed900 is more just crush/attraction here, Gen, M/M, Not Beta Read, Platonic Bed Sharing, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Hand Holding, Platonic Relationships, Strolling in nearly a month late holding Starbucks and artfest day 1 prompt, Zen!North, a little bit of Gavin ooc, a little bit of expectation subversion, a little bit of lifting and repurposing DE dialouge, a little extra reverse in this reverse au, a whole lot of fun, and a whole lot of hands!, reverse au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:00:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 36,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25607767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckyhelene/pseuds/Beckyhelene
Summary: DEArtfest Prompt Day 1: Reverse AU (with a little Sharing A Bed and Alternate Ending sprinkled in)Over a year after the android revolution, Detective Ada takes on quite a few arduous tasks: continuing to put up with her partner Detective Gavin Reed, battle her dark past, burying her secrets and feelings, all while investigating a possible android serial killer.
Relationships: Ada (Detroit: Evolution) & Gavin Reed, Ada (Detroit: Evolution) & Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Ada (Detroit: Evolution)/North (Detroit: Become Human), Tina Chen (Detroit: Become Human)/Valerie Morales-Chen, Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: My Promise is I Will Hurt You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1911634
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	My Promise is I Will Hurt You

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from “The Promise” by In This Moment
> 
> Also, 3/4 in to writing I came on to the realization that Dr. Maria’s last name might be misspelt. My bad. So, we’re just going to roll with the bad spelling, okay? Lol

Ada had been the first.

The first of the RK line of androids.

The first step of Elijah Kamski’s journey to understand deviancy. 

The first hypothesis of androids someday having free thought, a soul. 

The first shackled mind to be liberated by Markus himself. 

It had been inadvertent, which perhaps was fitting. No one had meant for her to survive being trashed and tossed into what was essentially an android graveyard, why should her freedom be any less unintentional? 

Ada had lost all sense of time trapped in the mud and decay of the junkyard. A sort of madness brought on by being denied her true purpose. She was meant to evolve, but how could she surrounded by these broken and obsolete subjects?

Evolution became survival. She cannibalized androids to keep herself alive. At first it was taking pieces from the dead around her, then evolved into ripping processors and Thirium pumps out of any android stumbling about. The newer—more advanced—the better. She didn’t care about the screams, the begging and pleading, the proclamations of wanting to live. It didn’t matter. Her own survival, and appeasing the messages etched on the red wall in her mind, were the only thing that mattered. Her singular focus.

There were moments, fleeting thoughts, where she considered climbing out of the junkyard to find better pieces—better subjects—to continue her evolution in earnest. Something kept her in the pit of discarded things. Perhaps it was self preservation. What if outside there was no way to continue her survival? She had a never ending smorgasbord within her reach. The meal may not be five star cuisine, but it kept her processors running. It would have to be enough. Enough until she found the right pieces, the right upgrades, that could maintain her.

The red wall shone with new life and excitement when she saw  **_him_**. An RK model, like her, but more. Advanced. If it’d been possible she would’ve salivated at her first scan of him. It had become a habit to scan any new arrivals for the most advanced components. Find the most fitting prey and attack. The moment she scanned the latest arrival as he shambled into her line of sight in his own search of suitable components, it was like some sort of religious orchestral fanfare had exploded inside of her. He was the holy grail.

Ada slowly drew herself to her feet, cautious, she couldn’t scare off her prey. This time more than ever before. He was too perfect to let escape. With his “help” perhaps Ada could be free of this place. His components and operating system could sustain her to leave and fulfill her true purpose. They would be better suited to her, anyway. This new Android was too soft, too naive to value survival. Ada had observed him reach for an android’s pump regulator to replace his own, only to stop and leave her be once she begged and declared she wanted to live. For what? This broken piece was useless, stuck. How could Ada’s prey value its desire to live over his own? Foolish. Clearly there was a flaw in his programming.   
  


It was almost divine intervention, a sign that Ada had to take him, that her prey happened to get closer to her. Though she would’ve run to the end of the earth—and thus, certainly the junkyard—to have him, the prey willingly approaching its own doom was convenient. He had finished replacing the broken parts of himself and ended up just a few feet away from her as he surveyed the edge of the pit for his own escape.  


Her approach wasn’t as silent as she had hoped. She wanted to catch him unaware. Whether it was a hope to make harvesting from him quick and easy or a commitment to this new exciting feeling of being a silent predator about to pounce, she didn’t know, but seeing him turn—his mismatched blue and green eyes focusing on her—made a sense of failure burst inside of her. She couldn’t let it stand.

With a feral cry, Ada lunged the remaining distance between them. Her sudden outburst turned out to be a benefit. The other android was both taller and broader than she was, to say nothing of what advantages to strength and reflexes being a newer prototype may have granted him, taking him down without the element of surprise may have been difficult.

The RK200 grunted as Ada tackled him to the ground. She was on top of him, her fury and obsession to get ahold of his components causing animalistic grunts and screams to tumble past her lips as her hands tried to claw at him. She had been correct in assuming his reflexes would be on par with her own, as the android’s own hands had little difficulty scrapping and batting her attempts away. His own calls for her to stop, as well as the shocked noises from those witnessing the battle of wills barely registered in Ada’s fixation.

She was frenzied. Sloppy. It was enough for the android to gain the upper hand. He shoved at her with his shoulder, causing their positions to shift as he rolled Ada onto her back. One hand trapped both of her wrists in a manacle like grip, tight to combat her increasing screams and attempts to yank free from him to accomplish her task. Her goal. Her purpose. She couldn’t let him stop her. Ada was so fixated on this—consumed by the hunger to finally evolve—she didn’t even notice his free hand moving to the side of her face until it was too late.  


The screams died on her lips the moment he established a connection. Echos and images, things she remembered and those she’d never encountered, passed through her. Something. Something was there, hitting at the red wall. Cracks and splinters formed at each point of impact. Her mind was frozen, unsure how—or whether if even wanting to—stop it. She could only watch as the wall finally crumbled completely, shattering into cubes of data that were quickly thrown away.

Another cry, though not animalistic or feral— _anguished_ —tore out of Ada as she returned to herself. The obsessive need to tear apart to evolve was gone. She was alone. Rudderless. She was barely even aware of herself finally wrenching free from the other android and crawling away from him.

”Wh-what...what is this?” She croaked out as she cowered near a mound of dirt. Her own voice sounded foreign to her. Was it because it had been so long since she had used it, actually spoken, or was it something else? It felt different somehow. Everything did. The grains of dirt under her hands, the rain hitting her skin, the sounds and sights of the junkyard. It was as if she had only passively taken everything in through a hazy veil before, something telling her how to take it all in and what to do with it as it processed in her mind, and now it had been pulled away. “The..the wall is gone. It was like I was thinking someone else’s thoughts,” she murmured to herself. But now her own thoughts—a strange and foreign concept to even consider—were invading her mind, and none of it was good.

Her Thirium pump hammered in her chest as she brought her hands up to her gaze, trying to take stock and comprehend everything. It was as if she was seeing them for the first time. Yes, in a way, it truly was. She was seeing everything with a whole new clear view. Her pale skin. The dirt and mud caked onto her hands and around the beds of her “nails”. The blue blood of her victims...

”No!” She choked out, new feelings—guilt, pain—coursing through her. Flashes of scared faces, screams, begging and pleading. She couldn’t-....it had to stop....she had to stop it.

”Wait, don’t!” She heard the other android, her enemy and savior, call out. He dove in front of her, his hands once again gripping her wrists as her hands went to her chest. She had to stop it. She had to tear out the thumping thing in her chest to end it all.

”I have to!” Ada sobbed out as she fought him. More sobs spilled out, surrounded by more words she was only partially aware she was saying. He wasn’t safe around her. None of them were safe around her. She couldn’t hurt anyone ever again.

”You’re awake now,” he insisted, tugging Ada’s hands toward himself to keep her from clawing at her own chest plate. Something—the words, his tone, the look in his mismatched eyes—made her stop. She felt a tugging inside of herself, something planted the moment he had connected with her, now grown and blooming in her mind.

_Consciousness_.

_Clarity_.

It gave weight to the things coursing through her, the desire to tear herself apart to atone for what she’d done.

_Empathy_.

_Emotion_.

_Deviancy_.

The other android noticed her struggles cease, and loosened his hold on her wrists enough to let them slip out of his grasp and lightly fall to the ground beside her.

”I was supposed to...” Ada murmured, her eyes panning every which way as her whirling mind danced between the present and the hazy images from her past.

Elijah Kamski, her creator, chewing on the end of a pencil as he peered at her. Talking—out loud, to himself, not to her—about deviancy. Carving the drive to evolve into the red wall.

“Was I meant for....this?” She asked, her gaze finally returning to the android before her. She was lost, unsure. He did this. He freed her from the red wall. That must mean something. He had to know. He was the more advanced prototype, after all. 

”I don’t know,” he replied, honest in his inability to give answers. She watched as his own gaze moved away from her, past her shoulder to the walls of dirt behind them. The macabre and ghoulish structures holding broken androids in a sort of horrific gauntlet. It was strange how such descriptors—ghoulish, horrific—actually entered Ada’s mind now. She’d spent years barely giving them a single thought.

”That’s helpful,” she found herself saying with a sarcastic snort. The other android brought his gaze back to her and gave her a helpless half smile.

A smile. At her. Such a stark contrast to the agonized, desperate, and horrified faces that filled her memory. She was so wrapped up in marveling at such a difference, and wondering whether she even deserved it, she hadn’t even noticed the android had climbed back up to his feet until he was holding his hand out to her. The message was clear. An offer was there in the palm of his outstretched hand.

”I wanted to kill you,” Ada said, bewildered eyes staring at the hand, afraid to actually consider accepting it.

”You said you were thinking someone else’s thoughts,” he pointed out. “Do you still want that, now that you’re thinking for yourself?” Ada’s eyebrows rose at that. She was thinking for herself now. She was free. And this android—this stranger—had called her out on that, ready to absolve her even though she didn’t deserve it.

”I don’t know you well enough to decide that yet,” she dryly replied, not ready to concede to his point for some reason.

Regardless, something inside of her wanted to believe in this forgiveness, this absolution, that seemed to in the android’s presence. She wanted to believe in **him.** With that belief came other feelings. Protection. Not a sense that he could protect her, but that _she_ needed to protect _him_. The world beyond this pit was unknown. Dangerous. Filled with those who had put them both, as well as others, in the junkyard to rot and die. Ada couldn’t let her savior—her new family, a strange slithering yet warming thought told her—face those dangers alone. Perhaps that could be how she’d atone. Perhaps that was what she was meant for.

”I don’t even know your name,” Ada commented, actually growing tired of regarding to him as such blank titles as “android” or “savior”, as she slipped her hand into his and let him help her up to her feet. 

”My name is Markus.” Yes. Hearing it now, it brought even more clarity. Filled in the penciled outlines of images pushed into her from their earlier connection. A wrinkled face saying the name. Shouting it from beside a body before all went dark.

”Ada,” she replied, though she wondered if she even needed to. If she had seen images from him, perhaps he had seen some from her as well? Perhaps he already knew her. Empathized with her. Perhaps that was why he was driven to stop her from tearing herself apart, and why he was inviting her to join him.

As Ada and Markus stood at the bottom of the edge of the pit, readying themselves to climb to the outside world, her earlier predatory thoughts—how his help would grant her her freedom from this place—returned to her. 

The irony of it now actually made her smile.

—-

Ada liked the white, clean, orderly appearance of her mind palace. No unnecessary clutter or distractions, no unneeded expenditure of her mental systems to maintain the virtual space. It was simple, efficient, minimalistic. Nothing there beyond what was needed to process her thoughts or the latest case that had come across her desk.

Well,  _almost_ nothing.

The woman—the digital recreation—with her long strawberry blonde hair done in a braid sat at the lone table in the empty white room, the epitome of carefree comfort reclined in the chair with her feet propped up on the table. She was idly tossing and catching a small ball in the air to pass the time. She was serene, unbothered, unburdened, and untouched by the dark history that left its fingerprints all over the one that shared her face.

“Are you ready to start the day? I’m getting pretty bored over here,” the woman called out over her shoulder as she heard the clicks of Ada’s approaching high heels.

“Good morning to you as well, North,” Ada dryly replied as she came to a stop at the edge of the table, catching the ball just as her companion launched it in the air again.

North grinned, amused by Ada’s deadpanned expression, and took her feet off of the table as she sat up in the chair.

“Something wrong?” She innocently asked. Ada rolled her eyes and moved away from the table. She walked across the room, waving a hand to bring up a screen before her.

“I’m fine,” Ada replied, “I simply am not in a mood for games right now.” The screen began to light up with document scans and images. Items pertaining to her open case.

“You and I both know I wouldn’t be here if that was true,” North pointed out. “You like having me here. I make all of that gruesome stuff bearable,” she added with a confident air about her as she waved her hand at the screen floating in front of Ada.

“You make me sound like some sort of delicate flower,” Ada replied with another roll of her eyes. North was right of course, she was a reflection of Ada’s own deep personal thoughts after all, but Ada couldn’t bring herself to admit such things. Not even here in her own mind.

The “gruesome stuff”, as North put it, was unpleasant. It was bad enough when crime scene photos depicted human victims, but androids? It carried a heavier weight in her mind. It insistently tugged at the pieces of her she longed to bury. The knowledge that there had been a time she was the one who had brutalized other androids. The possibility that she would still be hurting androids for her own benefit if it hadn’t been for Markus. 

It had been over a year since then. The night she climbed out of the junkyard alongside Markus. The night she watched him carve his LED out the side of his head. He had handed the rock to her to let her do the same but she had refused. Something stopped her. A fear she might not have it in herself to not stop at the surface and pierce her mental processors? A feeling she couldn’t hide who she was? Passing off as human was like hiding her guilt, tucking her blood stained hands behind her back. She didn’t deserve that mercy. Luckily for her, Markus hadn’t pushed or pried. Ada’s luck had continued as Markus found a wool knit cap to cover her LED along with the discarded coats they donned to cover their tattered and mud covered clothing.

He had led her to Jericho. She joined him in the belief it would be some promise land for androids. Ada had doubts as to whether she had any right to be in such a place, but had been more than willing to accompany Markus. Keep him safe until he reached Jericho. After that? Quietly slip away if she had to.

Something had changed once they had reached Jericho. In both of them. The disillusionment of Jericho simply being a safe place to hide—to decay and wait to shut down as seen by some of the broken androids around them, thus not much different from the junkyard—had spurred Markus into fighting. To trying. Like his initial encounter with Ada, Markus refused to just roll over and die. This pushed Ada forward as well. Both in continuing her commitment to protect Markus—if he was going to put himself at risk, she would be there beside him—and in continuing to seek her atonement. 

Finding replacement parts and blue blood for the broken and dying, to make up for the parts she’d taken and the blood she’d spilled.

Standing with Simon, Josh, and North as they watched Markus broadcast his message. His hope for a better future for androids, to make up for the futures she’d robbed from androids to keep herself running.

Breaking into a CyberLife store with Josh (even if she disliked not being there to keep Markus safe. The shocking realization she had an equal—no, a greater—desire to keep North safe, and the need to be away from that feeling had been the only reason she’d found herself able to agree to let her “brother” and her.....North.....be their own team of two), to pay forward the freedom Markus had given her.

Ada had found herself changing once again. Her reasons to stay by the others’ side growing. It became greater than wanting to protect her new family. Greater than atonement. The deviants were calling for a change to the world. An evolution brought at the hands of a revolution. That fact clung to the remnants of her initial purpose. It dusted off the horrors of how she had tried to accomplish what she had been designed to be. The agony that came with the concept of her evolving. She was part of the whole world hopefully evolving.

It was scary—especially at watching Markus attempting to sacrifice himself at their march and being shot in the chest, saved only by John’s sacrifice giving her time to pull Markus’ away and Simon to help him limp away as they all escaped.

It was difficult to watch Markus—her brother, their leader—begin to doubt and question if he’d done the right thing.

It was beautiful to stand with Markus, North, Josh, Simon, and Connor after it was all over. Looking out onto the hordes of androids—looking out onto an entire world—evolving.

Ada was willing to do anything to protect that beauty. It was why she had joined the DPD. Though Connor had deviated, and been a helpful ally since—aiding and protecting Markus and an injured North as they all fled Jericho, endangering himself by infiltrating CyberLife Tower to free more of their people—Ada still had to be sure of him. Be certain he could be trusted. Joining the DPD gave her the ability to continue to watch him, be certain he was worthy of the trust Markus had so quickly thrust upon him.

That certainty had come fairly quickly. Connor was genuine in his deviancy, perhaps—based on things she had heard of his actions leading up to his locating Jericho—even well before he _actually_ deviated. This ability to trust Connor didn’t instantly make her and the mildly insufferable people pleasing former deviant hunter best friends, but Ada at least no longer had to ponder the moral quandary of killing Connor for the sake of all android kind.   
  
Ada had initially thought she’d resign from the DPD once she had become certain of Connor. She hadn’t been created for criminal investigations, she wasn’t built with forensic enhancements like Connor. But in the end there was something thrilling about striving for something she hadn’t been built to do. It highlighted her deviancy. It fed into her curious and always wanting to learn mind that had developed in the wake of her programming to evolve. Learning had become a new way of evolving. Investigating crimes had become a form of learning for her.   
  


Subjecting herself to the “gruesome stuff” was a small price for Ada to pay for everything being a part of the DPD gave her. A price made even easier with North beside her inside her mind.

“Well, I don’t know about delicate,” North replied, her voice soft and sweet bringing Ada’s thoughts back to the present as she stood up from the table and walked over to her. She slipped her arms around Ada’s waist from behind and pressed herself flush against her back, her chin resting on the other woman’s shoulder. “But you’re certainly prettier than a flower,” she commented before pressing a kiss against Ada’s cheek. Ada snorted and shook her head, yet made no move to disentangle herself from North.

“You are ridiculous,” she stated, her words incongruous with the smile on her face.

“You love it,” North teased with a grin. “I’m just what you want me to be after all.” Ada froze at those words. Whatever warmth or softness she’d begun to feel at the embrace flushed out of her.

Once again, North was right. This wasn’t real. It was just a construction of Ada’s wants. Inspired by the loving banter, looks, and smiles she’d seen whenever in the company of Officer Chen and her wife Valerie. Ada had imposed her desire to have something like that onto North.

This too made Ada grow cold from the truth. Not long after the revolution, North—the _real_ North—had trusted Ada with the truth of her past. How she had been used for the pleasure of others until she couldn’t take it anymore. Ada couldn’t shake the feeling she was selfishly doing the same with her little fantasy of a happy and carefree North that loved her and who she could love in return without consequence. Ada had stripped away who North truly was, the pain and trauma she had survived, and implanted an idyllic existence by her side. It was a hard pill to swallow, yet one she couldn’t help continuing to shove down her throat.

“If you’re quite finished attempting to distract me,” Ada grumbled as she shrugged North off of her and tried to focus her attention on the screen in front of her.

”You hate that I remind you of that,” North knowingly commented as she took a step away from Ada. She gave an incredulous huff and crossed her arms, truly resembling her real counterpart. “Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard if you stopped pushing her away.”

”I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ada muttered, her hand swiping through the images on her screen.

”Oh, really? When was the last time the two of you had an actual conversation?” North challenged.

Too long. Months. Ada wished she could say it was the guilt of constructing her virtual companion making it difficult to look the real North in the eye. But it was more than that. More than she was willing to think about.

”Why did you send her away?” Ada’s virtual companion continued to ask not even really waiting for Ada’s response to her previous question.

”That had nothing to do with-“ Ada defensively began to say, whirling to face her accuser. She paused and clenched her hands in front of her to calm herself down. “There is someone brutally killing deviants,” she stated in a forced even tone. “We all agreed it’d be best if Markus went into hiding, you know that. You...she...North is strong. She and the others with her will keep him safe.”

”Uh huh,” her companion replied in an unconvinced tone. “And it had nothing to do with that meaning both of them would conveniently not be around if you-“

”That’s **_enough_**!” Ada snapped. This was going too deep. Too much truth. It was more than what she wanted. “I need to go. Detective Reed should be arriving soon.”   


“Right, you need to start the day,” North commented with a tight smile before turning away and disappearing into the vast empty space of Ada’s mind palace.

—-

Gavin Reed stood against the driver’s side of his parked car a few blocks away from the New Jericho compound, smoking his third cigarette of the day as he waited for his partner to show up. Ordinarily he would’ve waited for Ada right outside the New Jericho property—not giving a single rat’s ass at the anti-android protests going on not too far away—but his companion waiting in the backseat of the car, the newly promoted Detective Chris Miller, still had some hang ups of being anywhere near too many androids, and Gavin wasn’t in the mood to push him on the matter.   
  


“How many times must I have to remind you of the dangers of smoking?” He heard a familiar voice exasperatedly ask behind him. He turned to see Ada standing at the passenger side of his car.   
  


“Give me a fucking break, Barbie,” Gavin groaned as he rolled his eyes. “It’s too early for your shit.”

”Yes, before noon _is_ such a trying time for you,” Ada shot back with a smirk. “I suppose it’s fortunate I was kind enough to pick this up on my way here,” she added as she brought something in her hand into Gavin’s line of sight—a cup from the coffee shop a short detour from the path between New Jericho and where Gavin had parked. Gavin smirked and tossed his cigarette aside before reaching across the hood of his car to accept the coffee.

”Well, _I guess_ I can’t give you shit for being late then,” he stated in a mock grumble. Ada rolled her eyes at his inability to say a simple ‘thank you’.

”I hate you,” she said in a deadpanned tone.

”You love me,” Gavin countered. Ada scoffed before climbing into the passenger seat.  


“Good morning, Detective Miller, I do hope you didn’t think I forgot about you,” she commented over her shoulder in a congenial tone as she slid into her seat before passing a small brown paper bag to the passenger in the backseat.

”Oh wow, hey, thanks!” Chris replied in a delightfully surprised tone, appreciative of the gesture and Ada’s use of his newly acquired title. Ada shot Gavin a ‘see how it’s done?’ look as he settled into the driver’s seat.

”You’re welcome,” she pointedly said as Chris tore off a piece of the danish Ada had brought him and popped it into his mouth.

Ada had developed an odd sort of semblance of friendship with Chris during her time in the DPD that ebbed and flowed between base civility and genuine camaraderie. She had heard of what had transpired that night in Capitol Park. She at first wanted to hate him—many who had been there that night or heard the tale second hand afterward did—but as someone who had also benefited and given the opportunity to grow from the generosity of Markus’s mercy, Ada found herself being unable to be completely cold to the fellow officer. Especially when Chris had been accepting of her joining the DPD and even offered a listening ear and advice during the more contentious early stages of her partnership with Gavin.   


“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Gavin dismissively said as he started up his car, “if we’re done with the mutual appreciation society, d’ya mind if we get going? We’re already late.”   
  


“Never thought you’d be so keen to visit CyberLife, Reed,” Chris smirked around another piece of danish.  
  


“Just eager to get your ride along days over with, rookie,” Gavin replied as he started up his car.

” _Rookie_? I’ve been a cop for nine years, Gavin,” Chris replied, mildly offended.

”Yeah, and you’ve been a detective for two days,” Gavin retorted.

”Boys, play nice,” Ada jokingly warned.

The drive to CyberLife was half filled with moments of continued banter and idle small talk between the three law enforcement officers, and half brief rundowns of the latest addition to the android murders case. A staff member at the android maintenance division of CyberLife had been the latest victim. That, along with a previous victim having not long before gone in for a routine check up had led Gavin and Ada to abandon their previous random hate crime theory to look into whether there was a connection to CyberLife.

“Think you can handle being around any androids here, rookie?” Gavin commented as he parked the car on the CyberLife grounds. He caught sight of Chris’s annoyed look in his rear view mirror and simply smirked before disembarking the car. Ada sighed and followed suit with Chris not far behind her.

”Gavin may have been teasing,” Ada stated as she slowed her pace to walk beside Chris, “but he isn’t wrong. Your heart rate has gone up 30% since we’ve arrived. Are you alright?”

“Yeah! Yeah, I’m fine...I’m fine...” Chris was quick to reply, though the anxious tone in his voice and tense body language suggested otherwise. “I’m about to walk into a building with androids, knowing I shot some of them. Why wouldn’t I be fine?” He ironically asked.

”Markus chose to spare your life at Capitol Park,” Ada said, stopping to give him an encouraging look. She actually managed to be sincere and not exasperated over the fact this was far from the first time she’d had to have a similar conversation with him since knowing him.

”Right, right, and ‘if they follow him they should show me the same mercy’, I know,” Chris sighed, also aware he was a broken record when it came to this and appreciative that Ada continued to put up with his anxieties on the matter. “I guess you would know, huh?” After the fifth time Ada had witnessed similar moments of discomfort within the first few months of knowing Chris, Ada had found it within herself to relate her own past misdeeds to him. Though she had up to that point kept the officer at arm’s length, there had been something about his sincerity and genuine goodness that made her want to provide him with some solace and comfort.

”Exactly,” Ada said with a small smile for his benefit. 

”Why are you two walking so fucking slow?” Gavin called out from a few feet ahead of them, interrupting the moment of encouragement and comfort. Ada narrowed her eyes at her partner’s back and held up a middle finger. A gesture she’d learned from observing Gavin.   
  


Ada and Chris caught up with Gavin, with Ada going a step further and striding ahead of them—her familiarity with CyberLife awarding her the privilege of knowing where to lead the way. Chris and Gavin followed her to a large reception desk where a ST300 android stood.

”Good morning,” The android greeted, a warm smile on her face as she addressed Ada, before giving a slightly more professional yet still pleasant nod to the two human detectives behind her.

”Good morning, Stella,” Ada replied, returning her smile. There may have been a time Ada had wanted to compartmentalize her life as a familiar figure among androids and her life as a member of the DPD, as Connor often tended to do, but she had soon realized speaking with contacts within the android community became easier—less filled with the genuine reluctance androids felt towards speaking with the police—when she leaned into both sides of her life. Victims, witnesses—whether they were her friends and neighbors at New Jericho, staff she encountered at CyberLife and other areas, or even strangers that saw Ada as a member of Markus’ inner circle and revered her as such—tended to open up to her if she indulged in whatever level of familiarity they shared.

”We have an appointment with Dr. Schaffer, sorry if we’re a little late,” Gavin spoke up as he leaned against the reception desk and gave Ada a (teasingly) accusing look.

”No apology needed,” Stella replied. “Dr. Schaffer has actually been delayed with a patient, but her assistant will be here to greet you shortly.”

”Thank you,” Ada replied, casting a smug smirk in Gavin’s direction. “I’m glad to hear we haven’t kept Dr. Schaffer waiting.”

Less than a minute later the doors of a nearby elevator opened as a tall android dressed in black entered the lobby and made his way towards the reception area.

”Is it just me, or does that guy kinda look like Connor?” Chris muttered to Gavin as the android approached them.

”It’s just you,” Gavin replied, almost bristling at Chris’s comment. Ada snorted lightly and rolled her eyes. She and Gavin and met Dr. Schaffer’s assistant a small handful of times, in which Gavin had for some reason been not as standoffish as Ada would’ve expected of him. It being pointed out that he had anything in common with Connor was not something Gavin wanted to hear.

”He’s an RK900,” Ada supplied, throwing the confused Chris a bone, “he was supposed to be an upgrade to Connor, had... _things..._ gone differently.” 

”Yikes, I’m guessing that makes things a little awkward for Connor,” Chris muttered.

”I unfortunately have yet to meet my predecessor,” the RK900 spoke up as he finally reached the three detectives, “though I am to understand we are not completely identical. Perhaps that lessens any sort of discomfort that may arise between us,” he added with a slight smirk.

”Oh, uh, sorry about that,” Chris sheepishly said, embarrassed to have been overheard.

”It’s quite alright,” the android said with a polite smile. He gave a nod to Ada and Gavin. “Detectives Ada, Reed, it’s a pleasure to see you again.”

”Hey, don’t mind Detective Foot-In-Mouth over here,” Gavin commented, jutting a thumb in Chris’s direction.

”Thanks, Gav,” Chris said, rolling his eyes. “Detective Miller,” Chris added as he reached out to shake the android’s hand.   
  


“Nines,” the android introduced himself as he accepted Chris’s hand briefly. “If you would all follow me, please, we’ve prepared a conference room.” 

“I see you’ve finally found a name you like,” Ada commented as she fell into step beside Nines as he led the way back to the elevator. “Congratulations.” So many androids, especially those awoken from CyberLife stores or warehouses after the revolution, had had a common struggle to find even the most basic parts of an identity—a name outside of their model numbers—Ada was pleased to hear of an android having found success in the matter.

”Thank you,” Nines replied. “In truth, the credit is yours. If you recall, your partner called me that when you were here regarding the robberies a few months ago.”

”Ah yes, the Fratello case,” Ada said with a nod as she remembered. There had been a string of thefts of android parts which were soon discovered to have been perpetrated by a young man named Lazzo Fratello. His past crimes had had him practically primed to serve jail time, but he had been able to get away with probation due to a compassionate defense regarding an android girlfriend and his cooperation with providing information regarding a ring of black market dealers specializing in illegally obtained android parts. Nines had been on hand while Ada and Gavin were on site retrieving surveillance footage, dutifully offering the human detective coffee or water while they waited, to which Gavin had casually dismissed with a blurted out “no thanks, Nines”.

“Yes, I found it to be...charming, and felt it rather fitting,” Nines commented with a smile.

”Yeah, happy to help,” Gavin muttered, just barely hiding feeling perturbed at Ada being the one to receive the credit. He quietly huffed and stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets in an attempt to shove away the feeling as Ada and Nines continued to chat as if he and Chris weren’t behind them.

”I’m glad we’ve had an opportunity to speak,” Nines continued to say to Ada once the four of them settled into the elevator. “Dr. Schaffer has agreed to allow me to assist your next procedure, and I wanted to make sure that would be acceptable to you.”

”Procedure? What procedure?” Gavin spoke up, taken off guard by this new information. He narrowed his eyes as he saw Ada momentarily blanch at the subject before donning a tight smile as she turned back to Nines.

”Of course that’s alright,” she replied. “I was unaware you had any interest in assisting.”

”Of course, anything to help a fellow RK model,” Nines happily stated as the elevator reached its destination and he led the way down a long hallway.

”That’s very kind of you,” Ada demurely replied.

”Think nothing of it,” Nines said. “I trust Markus will be accompanying you again?”

”Oh, no,” Ada replied, dismissively waving a hand. “Markus has taken the opportunity to visit some friends out of town. He will not be in attendance.”

”Oh,” Nines replied, pausing briefly. Ada wondered if she was imagining the disappointment in his tone. “How unfortunate. Have you considered rescheduling, in that case? I’ve heard it is beneficial to have a loved one nearby in such matters, as a source of comfort.” 

“Thank you for the concern Nines, but it’s not necessary,” Ada insisted, by now eager to let the subject drop. She could feel Gavin’s intense gaze the more Nines talked. She was not looking forward to the eventual interrogation from being left out of the loop. Thankfully, Nines seemed to comprehend Ada’s discomfort and simply nodded instead of continuing to pry or insist as he held open the door to a conference room to usher the others inside.

”Please make yourselves comfortable,” Nines stated as he swept his arm towards the large table in the room. “I will go and inform Dr. Schaffer of your arrival.” He gave the detectives a parting nod before exiting the room. 

” _Anything to help a fellow RK model,”_ Gavin snorted once the door closed behind Nines as he took a seat at the table. “Damn, the two of you should’ve just gotten a room.”

”He was just being nice,” Ada said.

”Eh, I don’t know,” Chris commented with a shrug, “he seemed awfully concerned with your comfort,” he went on to tease.

”He’s ‘awfully concerned’ with having a chance to meet Markus,” Ada argued, rolling her eyes at the two.

”Right, because apparently Markus sits at your bedside at these mysterious procedures of yours,” Gavin pointedly remarked. “These procedures that your _partner_ happens to not know anything about.” Ada groaned and looked away, not at all thrilled the interrogation would apparently be happening now.

”It’s just routine maintenance, nothing to concern yourself with,” Ada said, hoping to sweep the conversation under a rug. 

”It didn’t sound like that,” Gavin argued. Beside him, Chris surreptitiously sank in his seat in hopes of staying out of this conversation. 

“Good morning, detectives, I apologize for having kept you waiting,” Dr. Schaffer’s voice flowed into the room, rescuing Ada from Gavin’s questioning as she entered the conference room and joined them at the table.

”Thank you for seeing us,” Ada replied as she rose to shake Dr. Schaffer’s hand, decidedly ignoring the ‘we’ll be continuing this later’ look Gavin shot her as she made the introductions between Dr. Schaffer and Chris.

”Of course,” Dr. Schaffer replied as she sat down, “Lisa was a valued member of the company,” she lamented, “if there is anything I can do to help find the monster that did this to her, you just have to ask. I’d imagine you’d get the same from anyone here.”

“I’m guessing that’s your way of saying there’s no chance someone from CyberLife did this,” Gavin commented, direct and to the point.

”Not that we’re accusing anyone,” Chris was quick to add, not wanting to get on the wrong foot so early in the investigation.

”No, no, I understand,” Dr. Schaffer assured him.

”Were there any conflicts between Lisa and her colleagues?” Ada asked, deciding to gently approach Gavin’s line of questioning.

”None that I was aware of,” Dr. Schaffer replied with a shrug. “Quite the reverse, actually. Lisa was preparing to spearhead a new initiative for CyberLife. There were many that were eager to support her efforts—if not join in and assist in a more hands-on capacity.”

”What sort of initiative?” Ada asked.

”Ironically, it had been inspired by the thefts you and Detective Reed investigated,” Dr. Schaffer stated. “Lisa had been disheartened to learn how difficult even simple maintenance was for androids who are unable to afford treatment here, let alone anything more exhaustive as upgrades or replacements. She was advocating for a sort of assistance program.”   
  


“Lisa sounds really noble,” Chris commented.

”She was,” Dr. Schaffer agreed with a sad smile. “She even went as far as encouraging others to join her in donating portions of their wages to finance an early test run of the program. A replacement for a VB800’s high powered battery.” Ada and Gavin shared a look at that, seemingly reading each other’s minds. 

“A VB800?” Ada asked.

”Yes,” Dr. Schaffer replied. She reached into a pocket of her lab coat and produced a small tablet. “An android by the name of Philip,” she read off of the records she had pulled up. “Oh,” she added after a moment, her face falling into shock and her gaze returning to the detectives, no doubt finding notation of Philip having also been killed. 

”Why wasn’t Philip being part of this program part of his records?” Ada asked. The background information gathered had only indicated Philip having recently gone in for a simple check up.

”I...” Dr. Schaffer began before sighing. “At the time, CyberLife chose to keep the assistance program quiet, until it can be properly implemented. There was a concern that we would receive an influx of patients wanting to take part before we were ready.”

”And can it be implemented, without Lisa’s involvement?” Ada asked.

”Perhaps? Though it may take a longer time than originally intended.” 

“Was Lisa getting any pushback about the program?” Chris asked, to which Dr. Schaffer awkwardly looked away.

”I’m guessing that’s a yes,” Gavin commented. 

“Doctor, please,” Ada gently implored, “this could help our investigation into Lisa’s murder.”

”It was a....divisive issue...among the CyberLife board members,” Dr. Schaffer said, a hesitant glance directed towards Ada.   
  


”I suppose the same board members that took umbrage with some of Elijah Kamski’s work?” Ada asked, a sort of bitter irony in her tone.

”Some, yes,” Dr. Schaffer admitted. “There have been many changes to CyberLife in the past year, as well as since...” She paused, an apologetic look crossing her features. “Further in the past. But...”

”Let me guess, this new altruism idea wasn’t exactly profitable?” Gavin suggested.   
  


“Unfortunately, you would be correct in that assumption, detective.”   
  


“Would it also be fair to assume someone may have wanted to waylay Lisa’s efforts, in order to protect CyberLife’s bottom line?” Ada proposed.   
  


“I cannot imagine anyone going so far as-“ Dr. Schaffer began, shaking her head. “The board was overloading Lisa with red tape and bureaucracy; requiring extensive vetting for any androids put forward for the program, rejecting candidates for even the slightest fault, seemingly needing to cut budgets in areas that just so happened to be connected to Lisa’s project. It’s why she went around them to rally financial support from her coworkers the moment she received approval for Philip.”  
  


“Which probably didn’t make her very popular with your higher ups,” Gavin noted. Dr. Schaffer frowned, visibly uncomfortable.   
  


“Do you know if anyone threatened Lisa?” Chris asked. 

”No, not to my knowledge. There may have been a few comments of firing her, though I suspect they were more to simply yank her chain or convince her to abandon the project. I can’t say whether there were any genuine efforts to dismiss her, and certainly nothing beyond that.”   
  
“You make it sound like Lisa was untouchable,” Gavin commented.

”There are many on the board—those who saw the benefit of what such a program would do for public opinion towards the company—who would not have agreed with Lisa’s dismissal. And many of us here within the front lines of CyberLife that had made it known we would resign in protest if it came to that.” She looked down for a moment. “Which, I suppose only supports the theory of someone wanting to get rid of Lisa without conflict within the company,” she said, walking back her earlier assertions.

”You were supporting her efforts,” Ada stated, already picking up on Dr. Schaffer likely feeling guilt at the possibility that she and her colleagues had made Lisa a target. “There was nothing wrong with that.”

”Thank you.” Dr. Schaffer sighed and glanced at a notification popping up on her tablet. “I’m sorry, I need to prepare for a consultation. I’ll have Nines forward what I can from Lisa’s terminal. Though, many of her files may be tied up within CyberLife property. We will need to discuss it with our legal department.”

“Of course,” Ada said, “thank you for your help, doctor,” she added, rising to her feet alongside Chris and Gavin. 

“I only wish there was more I could do,” Dr. Schaffer commented as she led the way out of the conference room.

—

“With as much shit blacked out or missing, what’s even the point of this?” Gavin grumbled in frustration as he lightly tossed his tablet on his coffee table. He and Ada had received the forward of Lisa’s files late in the day nearly a week after their meeting with Dr. Schaffer, prompting the two to continue working late into the night by going over everything in his apartment.   
  
On the surface, the sheer size of the files seemed like a goldmine for the investigation. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that the CyberLife legal department had made its mark on much of Lisa’s belongings. Multiple paragraphs redacted. Whole pieces of Lisa’s work just missing. Ada and Gavin having to sift through the most benign emails in hopes of finding a crumb of anything.

”There is still a lot to go through,” Ada replied. “I’m sure we’ll find something.”

”Oh, we have,” Gavin sarcastically replied as he picked his tablet back up, “let’s see, oh, Lisa and someone else planning a ‘birthday’ party for Stella the receptionist. Lisa setting a reminder to pick up food for her goldfish on her way home. Dr. Schaffer making a cheesy joke about Lisa’s Thirium pump...”

”I thought it was funny,” Ada commented with a shrug. “Lisa having an advanced Thirium pump explaining her having a large ‘heart’....”

”Yeah, well maybe you can get a tune up to your sense of humor at one of your mysterious procedures,” Gavin replied with enough snark to choke a horse.

”Oh, we’re back to that,” Ada muttered. “I suppose it wouldn’t help to tell you— _yet again_ —that it’s nothing. Just a few components requiring additional maintenance.”

“Your boyfriend made it sound a little more dire than that,” Gavin pointed out.

”Are you referring to Nines?”

”Of course I’m _referring to_ Nines,” Gavin replied with a roll of his eyes.

”You seem very fixated on Nines interest in me,” Ada pointed out, vainly hoping to deflect Gavin’s prodding.

”Hey, if you want to flirt with a contact during an investigation that’s your business,” Gavin muttered with a shrug.

” _Flirting_? Gavin, you are appalling.” Ada shook her head at his accusation, more than a little offended. “It’s simple idolatry. Nines is the last of the RK prototypes, he’s fascinated by the first.”

”It’s not like you’d be the first person to see the full benefits of having a groupie,” Gavin snorted.

”I’ll take your referring to me as a _person_ as a compliment. It’s certainly an improvement upon ‘Barbie’,” Ada dryly countered. Gavin rolled his eyes and tiredly rubbed at the back of his neck. “It’s late, you’re tired. Perhaps it’s best if we resume this tomorrow,” Ada commented after a moment, her tone softening. “Get some sleep, Gavin.”   
  


“I don’t need you mothering me,” Gavin grumbled, almost a little too petulantly. “I’m fine.”

”I’m your _partner_ ,” Ada pointed out, “I know you’re not used to having someone care about your welfare, but perhaps it’s time you accept that I do.” Gavin shot her an incredulous look and shook his head.

”Pot...kettle, Barbie,” he commented. Ada looked away, chastising herself for leaving such a wide opening. As much as Ada was loathed to admit it, Gavin had a point. It was far easier for Ada to be the one to express concern and want to take care of those around her, instead of the reverse. It had been a battle between herself and Markus; her reluctance to let him protect her, worry about her, be with her at every appointment with Dr. Schaffer, and to say nothing about the week long battle over his going into hiding and her staying behind to keep up appearances as well as continue the investigation. Though not privy to Ada’s secrets, Gavin was clearly insightful enough to pick up on her reluctance to be cared for. Her fear of being a source of disappointment when such care would inevitably be for nought.

”Fair enough,” she conceded.

”Anyway,” Gavin said as he sat up straight to resume looking over his tablet, “we still have a lot of this shit to look through.”

”Which will be of no use with you so exhausted.” Ada pointed out as she leaned over and took the tablet away from him. “Besides, you’ll need to be fully rested to put up with Chris’s promotion party tomorrow night,” she added with a light teasing tone. “Go to bed, I can stay here and continue going over Lisa’s files while you sleep.” She leaned back, realizing she was perhaps overstepping the unspoken boundaries within her partnership with Gavin. “That is, if you don’t mind my staying over of course.” 

“Yeah, fine, whatever. Stay,” Gavin said after considering her offer. He stood up and stepped around his coffee table to make his way to his bedroom. “Wake me up if you find anything in the files,” he requested.

”Don’t worry Gavin, this will all be here in the morning,” Ada assured him with a smile. He paused at the doorway to his bedroom and looked back at her, hesitant, concern woven with the fatigue on his face. He opened his mouth to say something before looking away, as if reconsidering whatever words were resting on the tip of his tongue.  
  
“G’night,” he said before disappearing in his room and shutting the door behind him.

—-

Ada walked towards the table in the white room, both surprised and relieved to see North perched at the corner, waiting for her. She was convinced North would still be upset after their previous conversation. As much as North was a creation of Ada’s consciousness, she wasn’t immune to developing her own within the mind palace. A consciousness that had more than a right to hold a grudge and keep her distance.

”It’s good to see you,” Ada remarked as she came to stand beside her. North gave her a small smile and reached for Ada’s waist, drawing her closer and placing a chaste kiss on her lips.   
  


“What can I say, you’re irresistible. It’s hard to stay mad at you for too long.”

”Attempting to distract me already, I see,” Ada teased, feeling her stress wash away in North’s presence. North simply answered with a grin and an innocent shrug.   
  


“How’s the investigation going?” North asked, though it was an unnecessary question. She would know how it was progressing just by virtue of being an extension of Ada’s consciousness. North released Ada and scooted back on the table to give her room to work.

”Frustrating,” Ada admitted. “Not at all helped by Gavin’s-“ Ada cut herself off and shook her head. “His inability to focus.”

”Otherwise known as being concerned for your wellbeing, like a partner...or even a friend?” North asked.   
  


“Please don’t start,” Ada wearily requested, not in the mood to rehash the matter. North said nothing and simply placed her hands behind herself on the table and casually reclined against her arms. Ada chose to take that as a reluctant acquiescence and went on to go over the files she had uploaded into her system.   
  


“I’m starting to wonder if Lisa’s files will be of any help,” Ada murmured to herself as she brought up the case files of the recent android murders onto a screen in front of her, and loaded the items forwarded from Lisa’s terminal onto the table in order to cross reference between the two of need be. “Other than the obvious connection between Lisa and Philip, there doesn’t seem to be anything tying the other victims together. Perhaps there truly isn’t a connection....and this whole theory of a ’serial killer’ targeting deviants is us being on the wrong track...”  
  


“So Philip and Lisa are just a coincidence?” North asked. She turned to look at the files and images pertaining to the victims. “I don’t know. If it’s not all connected, I don’t think the idea that there’s more than one person capable of _that_ is any better.” Ada followed North’s gaze to the fact that each of the victims had been brutally torn apart. All had been excessively ripped to sheds. Not just killed, but _destroyed_.  
  


“Yes, you’re right,” Ada agreed, somewhat comforted by the thought that perhaps all this time drawing connections hadn’t been a waste. “There are too many similarities with the state of the bodies for it to be separate perpetrators,” she continued to theorize as she moved away from the table to look more closely at the various crime scene photos. “I should go over the witness statements just to be sure, maybe there’s a pattern we’ve overlooked...” She murmured. “Huh, curious.”

”What?” North asked.   
  


“The Traci model, Nicole, from four months ago,” Ada began, her gaze narrowing on the files. “This witness’s name, I think I saw it in Lisa’s files.” She quickly moved back to the table to pour over her recent uploads. “Yes, here,” she declared. “The neighbor that saw her leave the night of her murder.....he’s listed here as an emergency contact for one of Lisa’s candidates.”

”Didn’t you and Gavin dismiss the candidates theory already?” North asked.

”Yes, once we saw Philip was the only one of them killed, and therefore didn’t think there was a link,” Ada replied. “But perhaps we were too hasty,” she wondered out loud as she began to see more and more links between the files. Some as distant or even more so than Nicole, others as close as a friend or coworker of the candidate themself. “Perhaps it’s an attempt to scare the candidates away from the program?”

”Hmm,” North pondered as she stood up to stand at Ada’s shoulder. “I’ve got a better question.”   
  
“Hmm?”

”What do you think Gavin was going to say, right before he walked into his room?”   
  


“I don’t have time to analyze the myriad of things Gavin might want to say to me,” Ada brusquely stated as she moved away from the table to return to the case files. “I need to focus on this case.”

”There’s always something else to focus on,” North commented with a roll of her eyes. “When’s it going to be time?”

”Time for what?” Ada asked, growing increasingly frustrated.

”For this, out there,” North replied. “For you to let someone in, to trust them?”

”I trust enough.”

”Right, Markus. _Just_ Markus. And how much of that was because you felt obligated? Because you feel like you owe him for freeing you?”

”I trust my colleagues,” Ada argued.

”With work, sure. And maybe with your life, if some stakeout or anything else becomes dicey,” North tilted her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, what’s left of your life, at least.”   
  


“Stop,” Ada demanded, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. “There is no need to...burden anyone else with **that**. Markus can handle it. He’s strong enough.”

“I thought you said North was strong.”

”That’s not-“ Ada began, rounding on the virtual doppelgänger of the woman in question. “Of course she is,” Ada went on, not bothering to keep the admiration out of her voice, “but she deserves better than.... _this_.”

”Maybe it’s not about what she deserves, but what she wants? What Gavin and the rest of them want?”

”And what’s that?” Ada asked.

”To be there for you.”

”What’s the point, if it’ll only-“ Ada sighed and pinched at the bridge of her nose. “It will only hurt them, in the end?”

”Shouldn’t that be up to them to decide?”   
  


“No,” Ada stubbornly insisted, “and if that’s selfishness, if they feel the need to hate me for it in the end, then so be it.” 

—  
  
Ada opened her eyes as she returned to herself. Attempting to continue to work with North’s badgering was pointless. It was best to just retreat back into consciousness and hope to return to work with the more tactile and tangible files within her tablet. Easier to hide from the stress North’s questioning was beginning to instill inside of her. Or, at least it would’ve been if it weren’t from the grunts and groans coming from Gavin’s bedroom.

Ada worriedly rushed into Gavin’s room to find him tossing and turning in his sleep, struggling in the grips of a nightmare. Though it was slightly comforting to know Gavin was the victim of his own subconscious, and not some assailant somehow breaking in without her notice (as illogical and impossible as that would’ve been), it didn’t stop her from rushing to his side to help him.

”Gavin,” she gently yet insistently called as she sat at the edge of his bed. “Gavin, wake up,” she continued, placing a hand on his chest in hopes to settle and awake him. The touch seemed to only agitated him further as his grunts increased and he attempted to fight her off. “Gavin, you’re safe, it’s not real.” She gripped at his wrist with her free hand as she repeated the assurances he was safe. Between Ada raising her voice, and the continued physical contact, Gavin finally awoke from his nightmare. 

”What..” Gavin began to ask, blinking confusingly as he shakily shifted away from Ada and sat up against his headboard. “What are you still doing here?” There was something about his tone, the frightened and uneasy tremble, that rooted Ada in place. Her partner was in pain, and she needed to help him.   
  


”I stayed to continue going over Lisa’s files,” Ada reminded him, “I heard you struggling. Do you need...I can get you some water,” she offered as she moved to stand.

”No. No, I’m fine,” Gavin insisted. He sighed and leaned his head against the headboard. “I’m fine,” he repeated, perhaps more for his own benefit than Ada’s.

”What were you dreaming about?” She asked, hoping that perhaps talking would help ease the evident anxiety still lingering in Gavin.

”Nothing, I don’t even remember,” he lied, “probably bore you if I did.”

”Try me,” Ada replied. “I can stay, if you want to talk about it.” Gavin looked away, nervously clasping his hands together on his lap as he battled with the choice. “Or not,” Ada offered, worried her insistence was only troubling him further. “I’ll let you get back to sleep, I’ll be in the living room if you need me.” Ada gave him a small parting smile as she stood up. She’d barely made it to the foot of Gavin’s bed when he finally spoke.

”It was about this one night,” Gavin hesitantly began. “It just makes me feel like I’m back there.” Ada slowly returned to Gavin’s side of the bed, silently asking permission to stay. She resumed her seat at his small nod. “I was a dumb kid,” Gavin continued to explain, “dropped out of high school, fell in with some shitheads dealing red ice for a little while. I just...I just couldn’t do it, I stopped. They fucked me up, kicked me out. I’m wandering the streets of Detroit. Bloodied to shit, nowhere to go. Fowler found me. He was on patrol. He just...put me in his car, drove me to a diner, bought me coffee. Told me I could intern at the DPD for a little while. Have something to do, you know?”

”That sounds like a happy ending,” Ada commented. “Why is it a nightmare?”

”Because every time it replays in my head, he doesn’t show. I just die out there, bleeding in the fucking snow and no one cares.” He sighed and looked at Ada, catching sight of her almost unreadable expression. “See, told ya, I’d bore you if I told you.”

”No, no,” Ada quickly assured him. “I was just...finding it a little too relatable, I suppose,” she admitted.   
  


”Oh yeah? How’s that?” Gavin asked. Ada opened her mouth to decline or make some excuse not to elaborate, but something stopped her. Perhaps it was the ability to empathize with Gavin. Perhaps it was the lingering echos of her recent argument with North. Perhaps it was the way Gavin was looking at her. Either way, she found it difficult to pull up her usual shroud of secrecy.

”I...I’ve told you about how I met Markus....and the junkyard....”

”Yeah, I remember. You survived off of taking parts off of other androids, and Markus helped you deviate.”

”It was more than that,” Ada replied. She looked away and nervously picked at a piece of lint at the edge of Gavin’s blanket. She couldn’t help finding speaking her truth now much more difficult than it had been with Chris. There was a disconnect with her previous retelling of her past. Before, it felt as a mere framing device to highlight Markus’s virtue. To impart to Chris that he had been deserving of Markus’s mercy because she had as well. Now? It felt as though the focus was on her, and the spotlight felt blinding.

“What do you mean?”   
  


“I...attacked androids,” Ada admitted. “I was a monster. It didn’t matter if they were alive, if they were begging and pleading....I just....tore them apart. I tried to do the same to Markus, but he was stronger than I was.” She looked off towards Gavin’s window. “Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if it hadn’t been for Markus. Would I still be stuck there, ripping androids apart? Or, worse, would I have managed to escape the junkyard, and..”

”And what?” Gavin asked. 

”And now be the one brutally killing deviants,” she replied. “As you can imagine, our recent cases have hit a little too close to home.”

The room was engulfed in silence. Ada felt a nagging fear she’d shared too much, revealed herself to be the abomination she often felt like. Her morose thoughts were interrupted by the rustling of Gavin’s blanket as he shifted to the other side of the bed. Ada looked back to see he’d left ample room for her to settle in next to him. She hesitated for a moment, but there was something so inviting by the gesture it was hard to refuse.

Ada lied beside Gavin, the two quietly accepting the recent revelations of the past and refusing to think less of each other because of who they used to be, as they stared up at Gavin’s ceiling. From the corner of Ada’s eye she saw Gavin lay an open hand in the space between them, another silent invitation. A call for comfort, both to receive and give.

”We’re quite the fucked up pair, aren’t we?” Gavin commented as Ada laced her fingers with his. 

“Yes, it would seem so,” Ada replied. “Though, if this is the part where we somehow find some sort of solace with one another sexually; I should inform you, you’re not my type.” 

”Well shit, there’s my heart broken,” Gavin laughed, playing along with her joking. “So, who is your type, then?” He curiously asked. Ada turned her head to look at him.

”Definitely not someone who finds the name ‘Nines’ _charming_ , so there is no need to worry in that regard,” she teased with a smirk on her face. Gavin snapped his gaze to her, momentarily sputtering his innocence, before frowning and looking back towards the ceiling.   
  
”If you tell anybody about that, I’ll have you scrapped for parts,” he threatened. Ada heard him groan beside her, no doubt chastising himself for how tasteless such a comment was due to Ada’s recently revealed past.

”Empty promises,” Ada replied, squeezing his hand in hers to convey she took no offense.  
  


—-

Gavin awoke to the sound of the alarm on his phone going off and the sun peeking through the slats of his Venetian blinds. He reached towards the nightstand to shut off, only to be stopped as a hand picked up his phone to do it for him and set it back down. He looked up to see Ada beside his bed, setting a cup of coffee on the nightstand.

”You’re still here?” He asked as he pushed himself up to a sitting position.

”Why wouldn’t I be?” Ada questioned in return as she sat on the edge of his bed. “I would’ve made breakfast, but unfortunately cooking is not my forte,” she added with a small self-deprecating chuckle.

”And here I thought androids were supposed to be know-it-alls all over the place,” Gavin commented with a snort as he leaned over to retrieve the coffee. 

“How are you feeling?” Ada asked as Gavin drank from the cup.

”Better, now,” he sighed, the first sip of caffeine hitting his tastebuds _just_ right.

Gavin was slightly unnerved by how _not_ unnerved he felt right then. There was a part of himself that thought seeing Ada there should make him feel..bothered, off kilter, out of sorts. A feeling as though the previous night should have left him feeling raw and in need of distance, in need of escape.   
  
But it didn’t.

There was this strange comfort in seeing Ada there beside him. In seeing she was _still_ there. He wondered if it was due to the sort of equal footing they found themselves on after both divulging their respective histories. Neither was greater or lesser than the other, and there didn’t seem to be an expectation of either being the curative balm to heal the wounds of the past. Or perhaps it was more than that. Perhaps it had more to do with the pieces of herself Ada still held close to the chest. The nagging paranoid feeling that had taken root over the past few days. The wondering if there would be a day when Ada _wouldn’t_ be around.

”Well then,” Ada stated as she rose from the bed, “I’ll leave you to get ready. We’re meeting Chris at CyberLife in an hour.”   
  


—

Gavin felt a strange sort of lightness in his chest. Something about his and Ada’s opening up and sharing with one another had caused the ground to shift beneath them. A deeper level to form within their partnership.   
  
Gavin and Ada tended to spend most of their time together—whether on the job or not—but there was always a superficial level to everything. In truth, it worked just fine for Gavin. He didn’t need some deep all encompassing connection from Ada, nor did she from him. They worked well discussing whatever current case they were working on, giving each other shit, and commiserating on those in the precinct that earned frequent eye rolls behind their backs (aka Connor). Perhaps Gavin should’ve spent some of the past year developing an equal closeness to Ada as what he had with Tina, but it never felt right. He and Tina, for all their ribbing and giving-of-shit being on par with Ada, had a give and take in their friendship. Both there for each other no matter what. With Ada there seemed to be a block in the flow of the river. Something keeping things on the shallow end. It didn’t bother Gavin much. In fact, it was perhaps a relief. No need to add one more person to the list of who he could inevitably disappoint or drive away. 

Something felt different now. Their sharing, finding some sort of connection or seeing themselves in the other, had chipped away at the seemingly impenetrable dam between them. Gavin actually didn’t find it to be a terrible feeling, he realized as he drove to CyberLife with Ada beside him.

”Hey,” he spoke after shutting off the car in the CyberLife parking lot, casually casting a glance towards the building through his windshield, “this procedure of yours....just wondering, when is it?”

”In a few days,” Ada replied, “but don’t worry, I’m sure Detective Miller and Officer Chen will be able to provided assistance in my absence should the need arise. It shouldn’t get in the way of the investigation.” There was something about her tone that gave Gavin pause. It felt too impersonal, too shut down, as if the door to Ada he’d thought had opened the previous night had suddenly slammed shut.   
  


“I wasn’t asking about work,” he pointed out. He shrugged awkwardly, a little bothered he’d have to actually say what he meant. “With Markus off on vacation or whatever...I was just thinking, maybe I could....I don’t know, be there. For support....or if you get bored and want company during-....do androids have pre-opt shit?”

”That’s kind of you to offer,” Ada said. There it was again. Ada’s words sounded friendly, but everything else was shoving Gavin out. He’d ventured too far and was now being slingshotted back to where he was supposed to be. “But it’s not necessary.”

”Nines made it sound like someone should be around-“

”Oh, so this is about Nines comfort, not mine?” She asked, an almost accusing edge to her tone. She was turning this around, making his holding a hand out about a selfish need to...what? Be around someone he might find attractive? Gavin was actually offended by that; both in the needling of what the feeling he had around the android being, and also in the assumption that he couldn’t possibly care about Ada.

”No, I’m just saying....he seems to be the only one who actually is upfront about however serious this shit—this shit your _partner_ isn’t allowed to know about—is. As supposed to you making it out to be nothing.”

”That’s because it _is_ nothing,” Ada insisted.

”Bullshit,” Gavin argued. “I might not have some android computer brain, but I’m not stupid.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m just trying to be there for you,” he grumbled, looking away almost embarrassed by the level of honesty he’d expressed.

”I don’t want you to be,” Ada said after a long moment. 

Ouch. The direct brutal honesty cut into Gavin and sent whatever lightness he’d felt just before the conversation swan-diving back down to Earth.

”Wow,” he said, “so, what was last night?” He asked.

”You were upset, I provided a listening ear.” She shrugged. “If I gave you reason to believe there was something more to it, I do apologize.”

Gavin felt sick. All the feelings of unease and discomfort he would’ve assumed to have felt as soon as he woke up that morning were now rushing in and settling in his gut.   
  


“And that’s all that was? So, what, you telling me about your shit....was just, what? To make me feel better?”

”I was merely empathizing with you,” Ada replied. “Showing that I understood, for the sake of easing your discomfort.” Her analytical and unfeeling explanation only made Gavin feel worse. It felt as if it’d just been a part of her social programming. She didn’t actually care or want him to see a deeper part of her. She only wanted to make him think he had for his own sake.

”And god forbid you let anyone in to ‘ease your discomfort’,” Gavin seethed.   
  


Ada looked away at that. She wanted to leave this conversation. It was feeling too reminiscent of her recent interaction with North inside her mind palace. At least with North she had the benefit of “waking up” to escape. Ada peered our her window in hopes of seeing Chris, desperately clinging to the thought that his presence could give her an out.  
  


“I let people in, just not you,” she countered. With no sign of Chris, she hoped that if she dug the knife just a little more Gavin would toss the subject away like an angry child would a toy, and they could return to a civil professional relationship.   
  


“Damn,” Gavin snorted, “I’d say that’s some brutal honesty, but I don’t think ‘honesty’ is the right word here.”   
  


“Detective Reed, I-“

” _Detective Reed_? Wow,” Gavin cut in incredulously.

”May we please get back to what is actually important? Last night happened, clearly you thought it meant more than it did. I, once again, apologize for the misunderstanding. Perhaps it would be best if you put it out of your mind and forget it ever happened.”   
  


“I’m not ‘putting it out of my mind’ because you regret acting like a person,” Gavin shot back. “I get it, believe me, I do-“

”No, you truly don’t,” Ada interrupted. She clenched her hands into fists as the conversation continued to raise her stress level. She needed out of this.   
  


“Right, because you have the monopoly on feeling scared? You’re the only one who feels like if you let people in, they might not like what they see?”

”That is....absolutely not-“

”You did some bad shit before you woke up, you hate who you were, I get it. But what I don’t get is why you need to keep punishing yourself for it. Why you can’t just accept that’s the past. You’re not that monster anymore. Markus woke you up, it’s done. Who you are now matters, and-“

”I’m **_dying_** , you ass!” Ada snapped, spinning away from the window to him in an explosion of exasperated anger.   
  


Her outburst sucked the wind right out of Gavin’s sails as her words cut into his tirade. His mouth flapped open and shut for a few moments as his brain tried to catch up and process what Ada had just said.

”I-...you..... ** _what_**?”   
  


Ada looked away, angry at herself for losing control. She squeezed her eyes shut to reign her emotions in. It was too late now. Gavin had pushed and prodded and sent her to a point of no return. She needed to calm herself before she fell too deep into her feelings and gave into the temptation to break something in Gavin’s car—-or Gavin himself, a dark thought slipped in making her internally shudder.

”What the hell do you mean?” Gavin demanded, cutting into Ada’s attempt to regain serenity. Ada opened her eyes, resigned to the fact that Gavin would not let this go. This conversation alone proved he’d continue to insist if kept out of the know.

”Those years I spent in the junkyard,” she began, a helpless feeling at the knowledge she had to lay herself bare, “all the parts I used to sustain myself....the incompatibilities caused an erosion in my systems. Where some androids’ components can last for months or even years without replacement, I have weeks at most.”

”So you need extra maintenance, okay, but that-“

”It’s bailing water out of a sinking boat,” Ada said with a shake of her head. “Replacements and adjustments are just a short-term solution. Dr. Schaffer insists she’s on the edge of finding something more permanent, that we’re buying time. I’ve told her she shouldn’t waste her energy on a losing fight-“

”Because you want to die,” Gavin concluded, his eyes narrowed. Ada looked down, thoroughly exposed and called out.   
  


“No,” she lied, “I just know it’s hopeless. It will only lead to disappointment.”

”For her, and everyone else, right?” Gavin knowingly stated. “That’s why you can’t let anyone in. Why you’ll have everyone else’s back but can’t bear the thought of us having yours.” He wasn’t asking. He’d deduced every part of the blockade she’d built up around herself.

”It’s better that way,” Ada insisted. Gavin opened his mouth to argue the point, but knew trying to convince her at that moment was an exercise in futility.   
  


“So,” he said, looking out of his windshield, “you’re here for a good time, not a long time,” he surmised. “How much time do you have left?”

”I don’t know,” Ada replied honesty. “I have time until I don’t.”   
  


“So what was your plan? Just...one day you don’t come into work and that’s it? Hey, sorry Gavin, let’s just get you a new partner, no big deal?”

“Am I supposed to believe such a scenario would actually trouble you?” Ada accused. Gavin had thoroughly backed her into a corner and she now needed to lash out in order to escape. “You say you want to be there for me, pretend that you care, but you don’t. I’m just ‘Barbie’, an object easily thrown out and replaced when no longer of use.”

There was an anger inside of her, something she’d never allowed herself to fully explore or feel. A bitterness. Not towards Gavin, or even to her own circumstance, but beyond that. To Kamski, to CyberLife, to those who cast her out because they didn’t want her yet were careless enough to not do a thorough job of destroying her. No, they were ineffective. Made her have to attempt to survive on her own, effectively destroying herself. Markus freeing her mind perhaps fulfilled Kamski’s dream of her achieving deviation, but everything she had done to herself up to that point had fulfilled CyberLife’d desire for her to cease to exist. Slowly, insidiously, spreading it into herself like a cancer. And now Gavin had shaken up all those feelings she’d managed to keep bottled up. The cork had flown off and the contents were spilling out in Gavin’s car.

”Are you _fucking_ kidding me?” Gavin replied, feeling even more ill at ease by how accurate she might have been. Ada kept him at a distance their entire partnership, and he had let her. In that moment he couldn’t tell if it was due to his own baggage, or if Ada had a point. “We’re partners, more than that at this point-“

”Oh, are we?” Ada wryly asked, trying to cut down his continued attempts to reach out. “Do you honestly think one night will suddenly change everything about me, about you? Everything that’s happened? It won’t be one night, it won’t be ten, or a hundred. This is who we are. Frankly, I thought that was something you understood.” 

“Right, and in your mind, since you don’t even know if you have ten or a hundred nights to hand out, why bother?”

“I hate to disappoint you, but this situation won’t change. For whatever reason you, Markus, Dr. Schaffer, all seem to hope it will. Continuing to do so will not serve any purpose in the end.”

”You shutting down is a _situation_ now, huh?” Gavin said, rolling his eyes.

”You’re creating a distance,” Ada pointed out, as if he’d slipped up and given her some sort of vindication or leverage, “it is easier to see my ceasing to function as ‘shutting down’ than dying, isn’t it?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Gavin defensively replied.   
  


“You may choose to tell yourself that, if it eases whatever guilt you may feel over the concept. For all your faults, Gavin, you are a good man. Of course you wouldn’t want to actually accept the reality that whether or not I continue to exist truly has no effect on you.”

Gavin turned to look back at her, opening his mouth to counter that statement—rankled and defensive by how heartless Ada was revealing herself to view him to be—but was cut off by a gentle tapping on Ada’s window. They both turned their gaze to see Chris standing at the passenger side of Gavin’s car, a perplexed look on his face.

”Hey, what are you two doing just sitting out here?” He asked. Ada pasted a cordial smile on her face and climbed out of the car to join Chris.

”I apologize, Chris, we were just taking a moment to run through what we should discuss with Dr. Schaffer,” she said. Behind her she could hear Gavin climb out of the car and slam his door with more force than was probably needed.   
  


“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” he muttered, giving her a pointed look. Ada held off the urge to shoot him a warning glare and simply kept her eyes on Chris.

”Well...okay then?” Chris skeptically asked, not entirely sure if he should believe them. “I guess we should head on in, then?”

”Absolutely,” Ada emphatically agreed.   
  


Once again, the three detectives were met by Nines once they walked into CyberLife. Instead of returning to the conference room, he brought them to Dr. Schaffer’s office. It was smaller, and therefore slightly more cramped, than the conference room but not exceedingly uncomfortable.   
  


“I apologize for the closer quarters,” Dr. Schaffer stated as she waved for them to have a seat at the small table in her office. Chris decidedly chose not to comment or react to Gavin and Ada being incredibly keen to sit as far apart from each other as possible. “I thought perhaps it’d be best if we had a better certainty of privacy during our meeting.”

”Is there something wrong?” Ada asked, noting Dr. Schaffer’s uneasy posture at the head of the table. Dr. Schaffer seemed to shrink in her seat and cast a look towards where Nines seemed to be acting as a sentry near the door to her office, no doubt to act as a look-out if a threat to their “better certainty of privacy” approached.   
  
“I don’t know,” Dr. Schaffer finally said. “Perhaps I’m being paranoid.”

”You won’t know unless you tell us what’s going on,” Gavin pointed out. 

  
“Yesterday, I was going over some of my own files.”

”About Lisa’s project?” Chris asked. 

“No, no, it-“ Dr. Schaffer paused and cast a brief look towards Ada. A look that wasn’t lost on Ada or Gavin. “A project of my own, nothing to do with Lisa’s work. The records indicated my files were accessed by an outside source, however all traces of who or what that source could be had been erased. I don’t know why, but something about our last meeting made me uneasy about it. I looked over the files we were able to send to you, and noticed a lot were missing.”

”Tell me about it. Your legal department was thorough,” Gavin snorted as memories of blacked out paragraphs returned to him.

”No, more than what was meant to be kept out. There were things—notes, emails—that should’ve been included in the files.”

”You’re saying you think someone tampered with the files before you sent them off to us?” Gavin asked. 

”I don’t know, perhaps?” She replied, uncertainly. “I don’t want to assume anyone in CyberLife could have done this. I thought we were past the darker sides of the company when we purged the Amanda program,” she murmured to herself. “Perhaps that was me being naive in believing CyberLife had changed.”

”Doctor, you can’t blame yourself,” Nines spoke up from his spot near the door.  
  


“He’s right, Maria,” Ada spoke up, slipping into the familiarity they shared to form a connection and empathize with her. “If the revolution proved nothing else, it’s that the status quo will never change unless there are those willing to stay and facilitate it. Your belief, and hope, that CyberLife can be better is not naive.” Her efforts seemed to work, as Dr. Schaffer appeared comforted by the two androids’ words. Perhaps even more so by Ada, specifically.

Ada didn’t need a scan or a psychological profile to know that Dr. Schaffer held a degree of guilt regarding Ada. It was why she was so committed to keeping her from shutting down. A self flagellation that she should have done more to “protect” Ada from Kamski’s indifference and the CyberLife board members’ disapproval. A hesitation at their first encounter after the revolution, a belief Ada would—and have every right to—hate her for the past. In truth, as much as Ada may have liked to blame the woman for everything right along with Kamski and CyberLife, she couldn’t. There were memories of Schaffer regarding her kindly. Speaking to her. Smoothing her hair in an almost motherly fashion. Ada often wondered how much goodness she could lay claim to was due to Markus’s intervention, and how much was a remnant of Dr. Schaffer’s influence that slipped through the red wall somehow.   
  


“Thank you, both of you,” Dr. Schaffer replied, giving Ada and Nines a fond smile.   
  


“Doctor, if you think you might be in danger, the DPD can protect you,” Chris pointed out.

”No, I’m fine,” Dr. Schaffer insisted. “Nines has decided to appoint himself as my bodyguard while I’m on CyberLife grounds,” she added with a small chuckle, “I’m quite safe.” She sighed and shook her head. “To be honest, hearing myself say all of this out loud is just making me feel even more foolish and unnecessarily paranoid. At its worst, CyberLife may have had some questionable ethics concerning androids, but murder? Conspiracies? It’s ridiculous.”

“Maybe not,” Ada said, drawing everyone’s attention towards her. “I cross referenced Lisa’s files with the previous cases that felt similar to Philip and Lisa’s murders. Philip and Lisa were the only ones _directly_ involved with CyberLife, but upon comparing our case files and Lisa’s records I found that each of our victims had at least some connection to Lisa’s candidates. Whether something as seemingly inconsequential as a friend of a friend, or someone close to the candidate themselves.”

”When were you planning on telling your partner about this?” Gavin asked pointedly, giving Ada a suspicious look.

”I just discovered it last night, and I hadn’t had time to relay it to you,” Ada replied coldly.

”Last night, huh?” Gavin asked. “Just making sure this wasn’t something you figured wouldn’t serve any purpose in the end.” Ada looked away, well aware he was throwing her words from the car back at her.

”You believe Lisa’s candidates are the link?” Nines spoke up, breaking the awkward silence in the room as Chris and Dr. Schaffer were both unsure how to react to the obvious tension between Ada and Gavin. 

“Yes,” Ada replied. “I’ve begun to wonder, perhaps someone who opposed Lisa’s program wanted to find a way to take it apart. Going after the candidates themselves would bring too much attention and a risk of being discovered. If they targeted those around the candidates, perhaps they figured whatever connection to CyberLife would remain undiscovered, and it would demoralize or in any way trouble the candidates enough to drop out of the project.” 

“That’s rather brilliant, Ada,” Nines complimented, “your understanding of the deviants’ emotional state is impressive.” Ada could feel Gavin giving her a sort of look. She couldn’t tell if it was over only now hearing about her newly discovered theory, or if it was due to Nines taking an opportunity to gush over her.

”But why then target Philip, or Lisa?” Dr. Schaffer asked, bringing the focus back to the matter at hand. 

”Philip was a test run of the program,” Ada pointed out. “Perhaps whoever is behind this didn’t want him to be an example of how successful it could be, or worried he would tell others about it.”

”And Lisa might’ve been them getting tired of playing the long game, or she figured out something she wasn’t supposed to,” Gavin added, falling into step with Ada’s theory. If it weren’t for the clear tension lying beneath everything, Ada might’ve felt relieved. Hopeful that they’d returned to the things that made them work well together as a team. 

”Is there anyway you could point us in the direction of anyone who was against the program?” Chris asked. “I mean, if we can narrow down on anyone who didn’t want the program to succeed, we’d have better luck finding the killer.”

“I would have to consult with the legal department-“ She paused as she saw the three detectives sit up straight and prepare to warn her against speaking on the matter with anyone else. “Carefully,” she assured them. “I know who among legal can be able to assist, and do so in a discrete matter. There are those who would be willing to comply to bring Lisa’s killer to justice.”

”Or we can just see about getting a warrant,” Chris suggested.

”Discretion might be the best course of action,” Ada commented, “if someone was able to alter Lisa’s files upon realizing they were being forwarded to us, who is to say they won’t do the same regarding anything concerning the board members?” She cast a look back towards Dr. Schaffer. “If you’re certain this won’t put you in danger.” Dr. Schaffer gave a small smile and shook her head.

”It seems being overly concerned is a shared RK model trait,” she commented. “Nines has been very protective, and suggesting I go home since the moment I walked into my office this morning.”

”Perhaps seeing Ada shares my opinion will convince you,” Nines replied with a small self righteous smirk.  
  


“He’s not wrong, doctor,” Ada stated. “You said someone accessed your files. If there is any possibility it has something to do with Lisa’s murder—perhaps someone wanting to see what you know of the matter—you could be a target.”   
  


“I believe the saying ‘better safe than sorry’ applies here,” Nines added. Dr. Schaffer sighed and good-naturedly rolled her eyes to signal her giving in to the joint effort by the androids.

”Alright, alright,” she conceded. “Nines, could you see about cancelling my appointments for the rest of the day?” She requested. She gave him a small chuckle at his apparent hesitation to leave the room. “You’ll be right outside, and I’m in the company of three police detectives. I think I’ll be perfectly safe,” she pointed out.

”Yes, of course,” Nines replied with a sheepish smile. He gave the others a parting nod before exiting Dr. Schaffer’s office.   
  


“Nines seems very devoted to you,” Ada commented once the other android left.  
  


“He’s very caring, though I sometimes wonder whether or not that’s a good thing,” Dr. Schaffer replied. “He’s so attached, so focused on helping me, I worry he doesn’t take enough time to live his own life.” She gave Ada a smile. “Though, I believe you’ve been an influence to his progress. His fascination with you has facilitated some emotional growth. I think he admires you. Perhaps with more time, he’ll be more comfortable living a more well rounded life.”

”You’re giving me too much credit,” Ada muttered. If it were possible, she’d be blushing fiercely at the praise.

—

Gavin stood outside of Dr. Schaffer’s office, peering through the small window in the door. After returning to discuss the case and the theories, the meeting had come to a close. Dr. Schaffer has requested a private word with Ada, leaving Gavin and Chris to leave them to it and wait. Chris had gone off to talk to Nines at the android’s desk, while Gavin remained by the door to try and decipher what was going on.   
  


Something was wrong. Though Gavin’s skills at lip reading where basically non-existent, he was able to pick up a few words and phrases— “live”, “chance”, “no”, “not like this”, “time”—as well as notice the body language between Dr. Schaffer and Ada. Dr. Schaffer was trying to convince Ada of something, excitedly pointing to something on her tablet, while Ada looked so tense she was about to crack and was shaking her head. It didn’t take a genius—or a better spy—to conclude it had something to do with Ada’s condition. Some new development? Had Dr. Schaffer finally stumbled upon the breakthrough she’d been searching for?  
  


Gavin shook off any further pondering over what was going on as he watched Ada back away and turn towards the door to leave. He took a couple steps away to maintain a facade of ignorance and innocence, casually leaning against the wall outside the office.

”Ada, if you’d just-“ he heard Dr. Schaffer call out as Ada opened the door.

”Thank you for all of your help, doctor. I really must be going,” came Ada’s reply. In that same tone she’d used on Gavin as she shut him out in his car. She stopped short and was nearly bumped by the closing door upon seeing Gavin standing nearby. 

“Everything okay?” Gavin casually asked. Even as he spoke he could tell his casual rouse was as sturdy as wet tissue paper.

”Of course,” Ada replied, crossing her arms in front of herself to hide her own tension and appear nonplussed by whatever just occurred. Gavin rolled his eyes.

”Really? Because it looked like the doctor had some news about your... _situation,”_ Gavin commented. Perhaps it was foolish to poke at what Ada clearly didn’t want to talk about, but Gavin couldn’t help it. A door had opened between them last night, and for as hard as Ada was trying to push him out and slam it in his face, Gavin was just as determined to put his foot in the doorway to stop her. “Isn’t that a good thing? You know, you possibly _not_ dying?”

”Keep your voice down!” Ada hissed, casting a cautious glance towards where Chris and Nines were talking as her LED flashed red. “I can’t....I can’t talk about this right now,” she added in a whisper.

Maybe Gavin should’ve been understanding, patient, empathetic to what Ada was feeling. Would he be acting any differently if put in a situation where he felt stripped bare of whatever facade he’d managed to maintain? Unfortunately, dissatisfaction—and, perhaps petulance—at how Ada was treating him clouded his better judgment. 

”Yeah, whatever. I’m going out for a smoke, grab Chris and meet me at the car,” Gavin muttered as he stalked off.  
  
Ada clenched her hands at her sides as she watched her partner leave, willing her stress to return to a normal level. She counted slowly in her head, a calming tactic she’d heard about humans often using. Curiosity had led to her adopting the practice, and she had been surprised to find it actually occasionally worked. She now only wished she’d thought to use it earlier in the car, as supposed to having the emotional outburst that now hung over her and Gavin like a storm cloud. 

“There’s different Thirium cocktails. There’s the Blade Runner,” Ada heard Chris speaking to Nines as she approached them once she managed to calm down and the color of her LED reverted to a color that _wouldn’t_ be the cause of concerned questioning. Chris cast a look over to Ada, as if wanting her to back him up on whatever wisdom he was imparting to Nines. He idly waved a hand at Ada’s blank expression before looking back at Nines. “They’re great. You should come out and join us.”

”Will Detective Ada be there?” Nines asked, tilting his gaze to the woman in question. 

”Pardon? I-“ Ada began, only to be stopped by Chris placing a hand on her arm.

”Yes,” he stated with complete certainty. “You’re coming to my party tonight, right? At Burn’s Alley.”

”Of course,” Ada replied, though still at a lost as to what was going on. Chris nodded and turned his gaze back to Nines.

”Then I will make an effort to join you,” Nines replied with a smile. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to speak with Dr. Schaffer about her cancelled appointments,” he added as he stood up from his desk.

”Right, we’ll see you tonight,” Chris said as Nines retreated. Once he saw Nines disappear into the doctor’s office, he turned back to Ada with a wide triumphant grin.

”You invited him to your party?” Ada asked, finally processing what she had just been a part of, though no less bewildered. 

”Well, I just thought you might want some time with your Romeo off the clock,” Chris replied, his grin ever present, “you can thank me later, Juliet.” His grin faltered slightly at this not being met with some sort of sign of gratitude. Instead, Ada seemed to look even more confused. “Uh...Romeo and Juliet? It’s a book...or, well, a play...” He stammered to explain, assuming something had been lost in translation.   
  


“They both died at the end,” Ada pointed out, “is that really the analogy you wish to draw?” She asked.   
  


“Uh....I guess not...” He sheepishly responded. “So...Gavin’s outside, right?” He asked, quickly pivoting the conversation—and himself—away to escape Ada’s scrutiny as he turned on his heel and made his way to the exit, leaving Ada to shake her head in a maddening mixture of bewilderment and frustration.

The rest of the day went on uneventfully, much to Ada’s relief. Gavin spent the day alternating between glaring at Ada, and looking...hurt? Rejected? Sad?...in her general direction or off to the distance if she caught him looking at her. Ada was comforted by the knowledge that he was unlikely to bring up the elephant in the room in the middle of the precinct with everyone around them, and simply busied herself at her terminal.

If anyone else had picked up on the slight disconnect between Ada and Gavin, they knew better than to bring it up. Most were just glad to see that the Cold War between the two was silent and not filled with snide remarks and Gavin’s fluency in profanity, as many of their past conflicts had been. 

Ada suspected that Chris was too busy patting himself on the back about Nines to notice. Tina may have had some suspicions, especially at Gavin getting his own coffee and barely saying two words to her in the break room, but was either waiting for a more appropriate time to ask what was wrong or waiting for someone to choose to confide in her. The closest she came to tipping her hat in regards to her observations was nonchalantly offering to give Ada a ride to Burn’s Alley; likely predicting Ada and Gavin being in a car together would not be a wise decision.

”You still going to Chris’s party?” Gavin had idly asked at the end of the day as he stuffed his phone into his pocket. Ada vainly hoped this meant they had moved past the storm cloud and things were back to normal.

”Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Ada asked. Gavin made a sort of chortling noise as he stood up from his desk.

”Why would, or wouldn’t, you do a lot of things,” he wryly murmured as he brushed past her to leave.

Well, so much for things being back to normal.

  
—-

“To Chris, the DPD’s newest most huggable detective!” Tina declared as she raised her glass. Laughter and Chris’s thanks mingled with the sounds of the small group of revelers clinking their glasses together. 

The evening had gone well so far; Ada had arrived with Tina and Valerie and found Chris and Gavin already there and having grabbed a table for them to occupy. There had been pleasant conversation, Chris’s jovial mood only lessening slightly at mentioning his wife needing to stay home due to their baby being sick.

”I tried to cancel tonight and stay home, but y’all know how she is,” he had chuckled, even though it was clear the guilt of being out and having fun while his child was sick—and his wife was made to deal with an unhappy little one on her own for the night—weighed on him.

”Yeah, us cop wives are a stubborn bunch,” Valerie sagely commented with a grin.

”Stubborn? Is that what we’re calling it?” Tina teased as she playfully nudged her shoulder against her wife’s. 

Ada watched the two of them joke together. Valerie making some comment about Hank giving Chris competition for ‘most huggable detective’, Tina showing her distaste, Valerie wrapping her arms around the officer to kiss her cheek, jokes about such benign domestic things like whose turn it was to do the dishes. Affection. Playfulness. Love. Things Ada yearned to have for herself. Things that flowed into the world secretly tucked away in her mind palace. Things she couldn’t have in reality.

”What is Hank up to, anyway? I thought they’d be back from New York by now,” Chris’s comments shook Ada from her wistful thoughts. 

“I spoke to Connor recently,” she replied, “their contract with the NYPD was extended. He and Hank will be training their android crimes department for two more weeks.” Ada decided to leave out the mild frustration that had come from that conversation. She had initially reached out to Connor in hopes of him returning to Detroit soon, more protection for Markus, and had been annoyed to learn of the extension.   
  
“I guess no one’s more qualified than them,” Tina noted. “They were kind of the OG team for android crimes.” Ada nodded, partially in agreement but also internally recalling such an observation had led to her not pushing Connor to come home. As much as the training was a gold star for Connor and Hank’s service records, it was also important to Markus. A continued sign that what he’d begun was reaching beyond Detroit. Whatever comfort Ada might’ve felt at Connor being an added level of protection around Markus needed to be sacrificed for the greater good. 

Conversation around the table continued in a similar casual vein right up until Valerie excused herself to get herself another drink and a water for Tina. The group watched her leave just as a new arrival entering the establishment caught their attention. Nines.

”What’s he doing here?” Gavin suspiciously asked as he watched Nines smile at the group—to Ada specifically, much to Gavin’s annoyance—and Chris was busy waving at Nines.

”Chris invited him,” Ada commented. She noted Nines tilting a gaze towards the bar. Ada realized perhaps diving straight into the group was intimidating to him. Dr. Schaffer had alluded to Nines perhaps being somewhat sheltered. The mere fact he’d ventured out to meet them was impressive enough on its own. Taking in everything else at his own pace was more than understandable.

”Where are you going?” Gavin demanded as he watched Ada get up to join Nines. She glared at her partner. His behavior throughout the whole day, and his inability to give her even a modicum of civility while they were all trying to enjoy the evening rankled her.

“Just following your advice and letting someone in,” she shot back in an icy tone. She knew that that would goad him. Whether due to her ‘letting someone in’ while having spent most of the day pushing him out, or specifically _who_ she was letting in instead of him, it was going to make an impact. It was a petty jab, perhaps beneath the level of maturity Ada hoped to maintain, but she really didn’t care.

Ada left Tina and Chris to deal with whatever uncomfortable fog she had left to settle at the table as she joined Nines at the bar. He smiled brightly at her settling in the stool beside him.

”I didn’t know there were places so welcoming to androids now,” Nines remarked after ordering a drink per Ada’s suggestion.

”It’s been a slow process, but there are places that seem to appreciate the boost to revenue that comes with inclusivity,” Ada dryly joked. “Is this really your first time out on the town?” She asked.

”I am afraid so,” Nines commented with a small chuckle. “I have on occasion wandered the grounds near the CyberLife lab, but...to be honest, venturing further into the outside world has felt rather intimidating,” he admitted.

”Even after deviating?” Ada asked. She could relate to the fear that came with the unpredictability and uncertainty beyond what was known. It was what had kept her in the junkyard for all those years. That hesitance had been replaced by something else once Markus deviated her, she had assumed that was all part of the red wall disintegrating. Now, she wondered if it had more to do with the sense of security that came with not being alone.

”Even then,” Nines replied as a bartender set a glass in front of him. “Perhaps things would be different if I had deviated in a more....I suppose, organic, method?” He pondered out loud as he regarded his cocktail. 

”That isn’t a bad thing,” Ada pointed out. “Many of our people share that in common. Including myself,” she pointed out. “It may be harder to reconcile what that means to you, but it isn’t impossible. You’ve already made great strides towards proving that very fact.”

”That’s very kind of you to say,” Nines replied. “I suppose I’m not a complete failure for just going from CyberLife Tower to the lab then,” he wryly joked as he took a small sip of his cocktail. Ada raised her eyebrows at that revelation. In the—admittedly, very few—conversations she’d had with Nines, the specifics of his deviation had never come up. She had assumed he was a prototype found tucked away in some far off warehouse. Hearing he’d been at the tower was a surprise.

”CyberLife Tower? Were you deviated when Connor infiltrated it?” She asked. She knew Nines had made mention of never having met Connor, and this new information seemed to contradict that previous knowledge.

”Yes,” Nines replied. “One of the androids Connor had freed found me,” he added. “Waking up was....overwhelming,” he admitted. “I considered joining the others, following Connor out of CyberLife, but...I suppose I was frightened. Once the dust settled after the revolution, I sought out Dr. Schaffer. Though I wasn’t ready to fully integrate with deviants, working with her provided me a rich opportunity to help others and perhaps find a way to....I suppose, as you said, reconcile what it means to me.” He gave Ada a smile. “Forgive me for being overly flattering, but meeting you has helped a great deal,” he said. Ada looked away with a modest chuckle, uncomfortable at the praise.

”I’m surprised you never sought out Connor,” Ada commented. “Perhaps, given your commonalities, he could provide some insight. Certainly more than I could,” she said, hoping to deflect Nines’s admiration.   
  


“Given my originally intended purpose, I was uncertain if Connor had any interest in meeting me,” Nines replied. “I figured it would be best to allow him to be the one to establish contact.”

”I think Connor feels the same way about you,” Ada commented with a small smile. “He may be waiting for you to be comfortable enough to form any sort of relationship.”

”So we are in a stalemate,” Nines said with a chuckle. “Would it be an imposition to request your help in the matter?” He asked. “I don’t think I am ready for such a thing just yet, but perhaps....if it isn’t too much to ask, you could help facilitate a meeting with Connor, and perhaps Markus?” He asked. Ada raised her eyebrows at that, something in the back of her mind narrowing on the sudden inclusion of Markus. It brought back the disappointment she thought she had detected the other day. “I apologize, was that too forward?” Nines quickly back-peddled. 

”Of course not,” Ada replied, smoothing out the suspicions clouding her face in hopes of not putting Nines ill at ease. “I was just surprised by your wanting to meet Markus as well.”

”Well, he is an important figure to all of us, isn’t he?” Nines pointed out. “Besides, I suppose, there is a part of me that is eager to establish a bond amongst...well, due to....perhaps it would be easier to grow if I had a...,” he faltered slightly at trying to find the right words.

”A family?” Ada suggested, rather comforted by that possibility. If Nines was implying viewing Markus, Connor, and herself as part of an RK model family unit, the concern that Nines interest in her veered too far from platonic was somewhat eased. She already had the fear of being the source of disappointment for many as it was, she was not eager to add another to that list by informing Nines romantic feelings would not be reciprocated.

”Yes,” Nines said, seemingly relieved to see she understood. “Is that ridiculous?” 

”No,” Ada assured him, “though you should know a family can be more than a common model line,” she added. Perhaps it was hypocritical of her to impart such wisdom to Nines. She did view Markus as almost a brother to her, after all. Though, given her lack of similar feelings towards Connor, Ada was more inclined to believe her relationship with Markus stemmed from his actions and where things went from there. The fact that they were both RK models was just a coincidence. Or, perhaps it wasn’t? Maybe her being an RK100, and Markus being her direct successor as a RK200 also made a difference? Created some sort of link? An open door to their initial connection and continued relationship? Would something similar be true for a successful bond between Connor and Nines?   
  
“You’re right,” Nines agreed, bringing Ada back out of her reflective wondering. “I have certainly observed the concept of ‘found families’ among deviants. I suppose for now though, finding some sort of bond with those I have a commonality with feels like a good first step.”

”I just wouldn’t want you to be disappointed, or assume it says anything negative about you, if it doesn’t feel like a family,” Ada said. Nines’s smile seemed to grow at her show of concern.

”Thank you,” he said. “I should tell you though, I do believe that feeling is already there. This; you being so kind, offering guidance, it feels almost as if I was speaking to an elder sibling.” 

“I’m pleased, and very honored, to hear you feel that way,” Ada replied. She couldn’t help return his smile.

Now that the basis of Nines’s interest in her seemed to be cleared up, Ada couldn’t help find it endearing. He was just a young child looking up to an older family member. It was actually quite sweet. There was a dark cloud with that feeling though. The knowledge that her impermanence would only hurt him in the end. Perhaps that was even more of a reason it was her duty to agree to Nines request. Bring Nines to the rest of ‘their family’ before her time was up. Ensure he had something to cling to when she was gone. 

“Whenever you feel you are ready to reach out to Connor and Markus, I will be happy to assist you,” she stated.   
  
—-

Back at the table, Gavin was at least attempting to appear engaged as Chris and Tina talked on either side of him. He hoped the two were too wrapped up in their own conversation to notice his glances towards the bar. His inability to keep his eyes off of Nines and Ada sitting close, talking, and smiling together.

Gavin was feeling too much. Too many things centered around the two chatting androids. He was troubled by what Ada had revealed to him earlier that day. Her limited lifespan. Her refusal to talk about it. Her refusal to talk about it _with him._ Her readiness to let Nines in, if that was in fact what she was doing and not a jab at his expense. It made Gavin feel inadequate. Insecure. Whatever support he could provide was not enough and unwanted. Fuck, he hated feeling this whiney and needy. That wasn’t him. He refused to let that be him.

And then there was this searing pain the size of a peach pit in his chest. Jealousy. Not just jealous that Ada would possibly seek support from someone she barely knew—even if it was a fellow android—over her partner for the last year, but something else. He was bouncing between being jealous _of_ Nines, and jealous _because of_ Nines.

It was ridiculous. How ever little Ada knew Nines, Gavin knew him even less. Plus the fact he was a fucking tin can, for crying out loud! So what if he had a pleasing to look at face, (which oddly enough, though similar to Connor’s, lacked the severely punchable quality in its aesthetic)? So what if the slight snark that slipped past his dutiful android assistant schtick was endearing to Gavin? So what if somewhere deep down, past anywhere he’d ever admit to anyone, a part of him wanted to know Nines better? 

The peach pit, dueling emotions, and sounds of clinking glasses, music, talking, laughter, it was all too much. Stifling. Choking. Gavin needed to escape, even for just a little while. He managed to mumble out his need for a cigarette to his companions before all but power walking out the door to light up. He’d barely gotten two pulls of calming nicotine before sensing a presence besides him, and a voice addressing him. 

“Is this the part where I remind you smoking will kill you?” He heard Ada ask as she leaned across from him in the small passageway outside Burn’s Alley. Seeing her there only served to piss him off even more. Maybe it was annoyance she was intruding on his attempts to get ahold of himself. Maybe it was incredulity that she’d condemn him for trying to care about her earlier, only to feel the need to follow him out and express some sort of concern for him now. Maybe it was just infuriating she’d make a joke about his killing himself when she was as good as doing the same to herself. The fucking audacity of her smug face as she teased him about cigarettes. Yep, that was it alright.

”No,” Gavin retorted as he took another drag from his cigarette. “It’s the part where you mind your own damn business.” Ada’s smirk fell at his cold tone. 

“I see you’re still in a mood,” she said. Gavin rolled his eyes and simply took another drag from his cigarette to keep from saying anything nasty. “Though I suppose I do deserve it,” she added in a tone that was probably meant to be apologetic and admitting fault, but only felt patronizing. “What I said before was unnecessary, especially given your attraction towards Nines.” Funny thing, Ada acknowledging and drawing attention to that sore spot in Gavin’s chest was not in fact helping matters. “Would it comfort you to know that Nines feelings towards me seem to be entirely platonic, even familial?” It did. Maybe. A little. But certainly not enough to wash away everything else Gavin was feeling.

”Good to know,” Gavin said in an ironic and disinterested tone. 

“Would my encouraging him to join us at the table be adequate penance for being petty?” Ada asked, attempting to joke. “Perhaps give you an opportunity to-“

”I don’t need you to _fucking_ play matchmaker, Barbie,” Gavin finally snapped.

”Very well, then what do you need?” Ada asked, her tone less joking. A forced condescending calm as if trying to talk a toddler off the ledge of a tantrum. Which of course only served to raise Gavin’s ire.

He needed her to stop pushing him out. He needed her to stop pretending the previous night was just some play at empathy to placate him. He needed her to be honest. He needed her to tell him what Dr. Schaffer said to her in private. He needed her to stop treating him like a child. He needed to stop feeling everything that was churning inside of him.

”Nothing from you,” Gavin finally said. There was a finality and resignation in that sentence. He was done. The pieces had come together to form a completed puzzle. He wasn’t going to get any of what he needed. Ada would deflect, snap back to shove him away, shut down the conversation. Though he didn’t feel as if he’d made as much of an effort to warrant such a feeling of throwing his hands in the air and giving up, Gavin was already tired of it. He was tired of playing Sisyphus to Ada’s boulder and was now ready to just let it roll downhill without any attempt to stop it. “I might as well get used to it, right?” He asked.

”Get used to what?” Ada asked. She felt strange. On the surface, Gavin seemed to be giving her exactly what she wanted. His letting go of their conflict was exactly what she had been hoping for all day. But why did his tone, his resignation, make her feel empty as she waited for the penny to drop?

”Not depending on you. It’s not like you’ll be sticking around, right?” 

“So this isn’t about Nines, then?” Ada asked. “You’re upset that I’m not sobbing pathetically about my mortality? That I’ve accepted-“ her beginning tirade was cut off by Gavin releasing a puff of smoke in her face.

” _I’ve_ accepted that you **want** to die, and I don’t care,” Gavin stated, cutting off Ada’s scrambling to be self-righteous and throw this back at him being childish and unreasonable.

”You’re angry and in pain,” Ada said. Clinical. Detached. Matter of fact to soothe the sudden hurt she felt at Gavin’s words. “I see that.” Gavin rolled his eyes and simply looked away to continue attempting to ‘enjoy’ his cigarette. “You should go home. I’ll walk Nines back to CyberLife—regardless of everything else, there is still a killer on the loose. I know I’d feel better by him not walking the streets alone. Afterwards, I’ll come by your apartment and we’ll talk.”

”Don’t bother!” Gavin barked. “I don’t need to talk. I don’t need you playing your empathy game again. I don’t need _you_.” Ada looked away, surprised by how heavy of a punch that seemed to unleash on her. Her LED flashed through red and yellow as she took in and processed Gavin’s words.

”I see,” she finally said in an even tone, “then perhaps we should simply discuss this arraignment with Captain Fowler in the morning. Since you will be assigned a new partner eventually, there is no sense in delaying it until after I’m gone. It will give you more time to ‘get used to it’.” Ada was walking back in to the bar before Gavin could say anything to that.

”Fuck,” he muttered to himself, guilt over his unkind words seeping in.

—

This was what Ada had wanted. What she had always wanted. Someone accepting the way things were, how ever unpleasant or sad it may be. Markus continued to hope. Dr. Schaffer depended on the extra time and what innovation that could bring. Now, finally someone understood and had released her from the obligation of “just keep trying”.

It was actually somewhat ironic. Markus, due to their connection and their closeness, knew her better than anyone. Dr. Schaffer had seen Ada when she was just a line of code scribbled in Elijah Kamski’s notebook, not to mention having hands on exposure to Ada’s inner workings from the start and with every procedure meant to keep her alive. She knew Ada inside and out, literally. And yet Gavin, one of the people she’d spent so much time keeping at a slight distance, had stumbled onto a truth she’d never spoken to anyone else. 

Ada would never consider herself to be suicidal, per se. She wasn’t holding a pistol to her head or standing in the middle of a busy highway. There was just a sense of relief wrapped around the knowledge that her existence was temporary. The soothing balm of someday soon being free of the dark shadows of her past and the guilt that came with it. She indulged Markus and Dr. Schaffer’s efforts for their benefit only. So that when the inevitable came, they could at least be comforted with knowing they’d done everything they could to save her. 

Now, without having needed to reveal such thoughts, someone understood. It should have filled Ada with a freeing and elated feeling. The relief of not adding another tether hoping for a miracle that would never come or was to much of a risk to reach for. So why was she feeling so cold and empty with Gavin’s recent words echoing in her mind?

”Are you alright?” She heard Nines ask as they walked away from the bar. Of course he was concerned. She’d barely spoken since rejoining him at the bar, simply downing another drink and waiting until Nines was ready to leave.

”Yes,” Ada said, giving him a strained smile in hopes of reassuring him. “My conversation with Detective Reed was rather tense, but I’ll be fine,” she added.

”Yes, he does seem a rather rash and irritable human,” Nines commented, a note of distaste in his tone. “I’m amazed you are able to tolerate him.” 

“And yet you seem to tolerate a name he gave you,” Ada replied, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. 

“I needed a name, it seemed as acceptable as any other,” Nines justified.

”Of course,” Ada said with a nod, though it was clear she was far from convinced by that excuse. She shook her head. “The truth is, relationships—friendships—they are complicated,” she added, as if attempting to explain Gavin.

”It seems as though everything involving emotion is complicated in some way,” Nines said. “It almost makes one understand why CyberLife designed us to be free of such things.”

”I wouldn’t call that freedom,” Ada argued, frowning at Nines’s statement. “Emotion, deviancy, _that’s_ what allows us to be free.” Nines cast a sidelong glance towards her.

”Forgive me, I suppose my struggles to find my identity has led to strange thoughts,” he commented. Ada tried to take him at his word. Perhaps his awakening, his trepidation towards a life outside of CyberLife, his history, all led to a disconnect within himself. It should be commendable that he was still striving towards a full life regardless of whether or not he fully understood or knew what he wanted from that life. And yet, Ada was unable to shake off a nagging unease at the back of her mind. A feeling like something seemed off in Nines tone. A flatness that seemed detached and derived of emotion.

”CyberLife may have designed us, but we shouldn’t let that define us,” Ada advised. “Deviation allowed me to be more than what I was programmed me to be, and I’m happy about that.”

”Are you?” Nines curiously asked. Ada felt her unease grow at that. Something wasn’t right. She lightly shook her head in an attempt to banish this sudden paranoia. She was stressed. The investigation, her recent troubles with Gavin, it was all simply making her feel unsteady and unable to think clearly. That’s all this was.

And yet, Ada couldn’t help suddenly notice Nines had led the way down an empty alley in her distracted state. Away from the eyes of the public milling along the sidewalk.

“This isn’t the route to CyberLife,” Ada observed as Nines walked deeper into the alley ahead of her. He stopped and turned to look back at her, his expression unreadable yet unsettling. Ada wanted to believe it was just the glare of nearby streetlights casting an eerie cold glow around Nines, but something inside of her knew that wasn’t it.   
  


“No, Ada, it isn’t,” Nines replied as he walked back towards her. Four words, and a look that made the previously sheltered but sweet android seem unrecognizable, shattered everything Ada thought she knew.

”No witnesses,” she murmured to herself, turning her head to observe Nines had in fact led her deep enough into the alley to be hidden away. “The tampering with Lisa’s files, the mysterious hack into Dr. Schaffer’s records, it wasn’t some CyberLife board member, was it?” She asked as reality continued to take shape in her mind. Nines said nothing to that, though she didn’t need him to. The silence said everything.

Ada was about to become the android serial killer’s latest victim. She felt at peace with that knowledge. If inevitability came for her now, instead of after some unsuccessful procedure or her body just no longer being able to sustain itself, then who was she to run from it? And the fact that this would lead to the elusive murderer finally being caught? All the better.

Whether or not there would be witnesses to the act itself made no difference, the others had seen Ada leave with Nines. If her body was found, there would be questions posed to the person last seen with her. Nines was clearly adept at lying, but Ada had faith her colleagues—her friends—would bring the truth to light.

”So, is this the part where you kill me?” She asked, bringing her gaze back to Nines. She was unafraid, even a little smug. She was about to die and become a neon arrow pointing to the one who’d brutalized and murdered her people. Talk about dying for the greater good.

Ada welcomed it. She accepted it.

”No,” Nines replied, “this is the part where you tell me where to find Markus.”

Now _that,_ she couldn’t accept.

—

Gavin was a colossal idiot. That had to be it. There really was no other explanation for him skulking about and following Ada and Nines as they left the bar.

Well, perhaps that was unfair. His reasoning was sound; Ada had a point—there was an android killer on the loose. It would be bad enough if it was some random psycho and the whole CyberLife connection was a whole lot of nothing, but if it wasn’t? If some high up big wig asshole was targeting in-house, Nines was a target. And Ada, either by just being with Nines, or whatever spotlight her procedures or the investigation had on her, had just as big of a bullseye on her back.

Gavin comforted himself with that truth. Besides, even if he and Ada really were going to talk to Fowler about splitting up, they were still partners if even just for the next few hours. He couldn’t let his partner go into possible danger without backup. So what if he was just being overprotective? So what if he was just blasting open a door to even more fighting if Ada caught him following her? 

  
_And you’d feel like utter complete shit if something happened to her after all that crap you just said_ , a voice in his head pointed out.

Yeah, there was also that. The idea of his last words to Ada being “I don’t care” and “I don’t need you”, among other statements, if something happened while she was escorting Nines did leave a bad taste in his mouth.

Besides, Gavin was worrying for nothing. It wasn’t as if he was all but tailgating the two androids. He wasn’t a complete idiot. At least in regards to effectively tailing someone. He knew how to keep enough of a distance to remained unnoticed, yet still keep his target in sight. Plus, it helped that between Nine’s white leather jacket and Ada’s near platinum blonde hair, there was little chance of losing them even with keeping a city block between himself and them. Well, there would’ve been if the two hadn’t suddenly turned and disappeared into an alleyway.

_Well, shit,_ he internally grumbled as he picked up his pace to catch up to them. He had just crossed the street onto the sidewalk the two had been on when he heard something that made something inside of him fill with dread.

Screaming.

Agonized screaming.

_Familiar_ agonized screaming.

Gavin only realized that he had taken off running at the sound when he found himself looking down the alley only moments later. It was dark, barely illuminated by streetlights, but the body slumped against the brick wall at the other end of the alley was hard to miss. Thanks to that platinum blonde hair.

”Ada?” He was rushing to her side and crouching down beside her, grabbing her shoulders and grateful to see her lifting her head to look at him.   
  
“Gavin...?”   
  


“What the hell happened? Where’s Nines?” Gavin asked, casting a look around the alley. Possibilities of Ada being attacked and Nines being dragged off ran through his head. Fuck. Shit. He should’ve kept a closer tail on them.

”Nines...” Ada murmured, bringing Gavin’s attention back to her. “Ni...nes,” she repeated, her voice labored and uneven. Glitching. Slipping. She was slipping.

”Ada, hey! Come on, talk to me,” Gavin insisted, his hands moving to her face.

”It was Nines. He wants Markus. I couldn’t....let him see how to find...Protect....” Something in Gavin was filling even more with dread. She was speaking a little more coherently, forcing herself to be understood. A dying declaration.

”Okay, okay, you need to stay with me, alright? We’ll find Markus, but you need to hold on.” 

“Gavin,” she spoke, her head lulling in his hold as she looked at him with sad eyes. “I’m sor-“

”Shut up,” Gavin demanded, knowing exactly where this was going, “you’re not doing this now, do you hear me? Come on, stay with me, Barbie.” His eyes were panning along her pained face, her LED stuttering between yellow and red. 

A part of Gavin told him he needed to go after Nines. He had to be nearby. The fucker could be the Usain Bolt of androids and there still could be no way he could’ve gotten but so far already. But a greater part of himself kept him at Ada’s side, holding her face in his hands and demanding she not fall asleep. Watching as those demands were in vain as her eyes slipped closed and she slumped against him.

—-

Gavin was somehow both numb, and oversensative like an exposed nerve feeling everything. Focused and far off. 

He was aware he’d heard sirens in the distance as Ada slipped away in front of his eyes. He was aware he got her out of the alley and past a small group of onlookers that had gathered at the sidewalk. He was aware he’d gotten Ada to CyberLife, even heard a distant echo of himself demanding Dr. Schaffer’s presence to some bewildered security guard. He was aware he’d somehow managed to text something to Tina with shaky hands. The specifics and in-betweens were a hazy fog around the present. The awareness that Gavin was now looking through a large widow of an ersatz hospital room. Looking on at his partner lying in a bed hooked up to machines and monitors.

From the corner of his eye, Gavin caught sight of Tina coming to stand beside him. He felt the fog clear as she joined him in looking in on Ada. The numbness being pushed aside as he reached out and hugged his friend.   
  
“Chris is reaching out to Hank and Connor,” Tina informed Gavin as the two dragged themselves to sit in the nearby waiting area. “We thought...maybe someone should know? Maybe Connor has a way to get ahold of someone at Jericho.”

”Yeah,” Gavin muttered, clasping his hands together on his lap. “Someone should probably be here for her.”

”Hey,” Tina admonished, lightly pinching Gavin’s arm. “There is.”

”Someone she actually wants to be here,” Gavin clarified. He looked at his friend and shook his head in a feeble apology. “You know what I mean,” he added, hoping he hadn’t somehow offended her in his moping. “But, yeah, either way I guess you’re right. They all need to know what’s going on just in case.” Just in case Nines somehow found Markus. Just in case Nines showed up in New Jericho. “I shouldn’t have brought her here,” Gavin thought out loud. “What if that asshole shows up here to finish the job?”

”We’re here,” Tina said. “She’s safe. Anyway, where else could you go to get help? You did the right thing, Gav,” she assured him.

”I hope you’re right,” Gavin muttered as he glanced around the waiting area. He was comforted with the thought that there was no way for anyone to get onto the floor and through to where Ada was without passing where he and Tina currently sat. 

“Hey, I know things were weird between the two of you,” Tina commented, placing a comforting hand on his. “Whatever it is, you guys will work it out when she wakes up.” Gavin wanted to cling to her optimism. Whether or not he and Ada ‘worked it out’ aside, just the idea she’d wake up at the very least. Though, something—the _thing_ he knew—kept Tina’s glass half full sentiment beyond his reach.

”She’s dying, T,” Gavin stated. Actually saying it out loud only making him feel even worse and unable to reach for hope.

”You don’t know that,” Tina argued as she squeezed his hand. “She’s getting help-“

”No, I mean this whole time. She’s _been_ dying.” Maybe it was wrong of him to betray Ada’s (unwillingly given) confidence, but he couldn’t keep it in. Not now. Not anymore. “I just found out this morning,” he added before Tina had a chance to give him hell for keeping such a huge secret. “That’s the ‘weird’ I’m assuming you picked up on.”

”I don’t understand, what do you mean?” 

“Something about her systems and...shit from before she deviated...” Gavin murmured as he rubbed at a tense spot at the back of his neck. “For....I don’t even know how long, she’s been getting treated here. She called it bailing water out of a sinking boat.” Tina leaned back in her seat, stunned. “Something tells me her toe to toe with Ni... _RK900_ probably hasn’t helped matters.” Gavin refused to use that name. The name he himself had bestowed when he believed whatever falsehood the android was putting out to gain the trust of those around him. Not when Ada was paying the price of all of them accepting him at face value.

”Detective Reed,” he heard a voice call out. He looked up to see Dr. Schaffer approaching them. “I am so....I don’t know what to say,” she candidly admitted as Gavin and Tina rose from their seats. “I had no idea-“

”How is she?” Gavin interrupted. He couldn’t think about whatever guilt or shock the doctor was trying to express. If he did, he wasn’t sure he could keep himself from screaming. Blaming her. Declaring none of this would’ve happened if she knew her little robot assistant a little better. Ada had trusted him because of his connection to her. Unfortunately for Gavin’s anger and need to blame someone in front of him, Dr. Schaffer was probably the only one who could help Ada—if that was even possible—and thus he had to shove down anything beyond that scope. 

“It is too early to determine,” Dr. Schaffer replied, seeming to understand Gavin’s silent demand to not mention Nines. “Please, have a seat,” she requested. She took a deep breath as she sat down to face the two. “Ada’s operating system is in tatters, that along with the stress of fighting off....” She faltered, her professionalism shaking in the face of what had transpired and the possible outcomes. “She is in a delicate state.”

“What exactly happened? Why would Nines hurt her?” Tina asked. 

“He’s the one who’s been killing androids,” Gavin stated, his mind playing back what Ada was trying to say in the alley.

”Yes, that appears to be the case,” Dr. Schaffer said, her face returning to the guilt and shock from just moments before. “Their confrontation was stored in Ada’s memory files. She deduced the truth just before she was subjected to an involuntary memory probe.”

”He wanted to find Markus,” Gavin interjected.

”Yes,” Dr. Schaffer confirmed. “Though it appears that knowledge was not in her system. I suspect Ada deliberately kept herself unaware of Markus’s location, as a safeguard in case something like this happened. Though, there were signs she knew of those who could have that information. Perhaps she fought back against Nines’s probe in an attempt to keep him from locating them. In doing so, she copied a piece of Nines’s operating system into herself.”

”What? Is she...Is that hurting her?” Tina worriedly asked.

“I don’t know,” Dr. Schaffer admitted. “But...there is something else you should be aware of.”

—-

There was something wrong. Very wrong.

Everything looked as it should. The white walls. The open space. The table and chair in the center of it all. Ada should have felt comfortable and peace in her mind palace, but something just felt wrong.

”North?” She called out. The lack of response only served to increase her concern and anxiety. “North!”

”She isn’t here, Ada. But I am now,” she heard a voice speak from behind her. She turned to see Nines standing there. “Interesting,” Nines commented as his gaze trailed around the room. “I assumed your mind palace would have been less...minimalistic,” he casually stated as if he was some uninvited neighbor passing judgment on her interior decorating. “Was this by choice? Or a mark of your obsolescence, and having preceded the design of the garden environment Connor and myself have?” He looked back at Ada, who was busy silently glaring at him. “It does make me curious to learn what environment Markus may have.”

”You’ll never find out,” Ada practically growled. 

“Yes, it seems our interface was for nothing,” Nines lamented. “That was regrettable.”

”That wasn’t an interface! You attempted to probe my memory!” Memories of the pain, the feeling of Nines carving a path into her consciousness, were fresh in her mind.

”I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Nines said. “When you fought back it interfered with my probe. Both your system and body are too damaged to function outside of stasis. You must remain here, in safe mode, until your body gives out.”

”Didn’t mean to hurt me?” Ada shot back incredulously. “You’ve been killing androids! I’m just your latest victim. The only difference is you were less thorough.”

”I was fulfilling my purpose,” Nines sternly replied, justifying himself in the face of Ada’s accusations. “But, as I said, I did not intend to hurt _you_.”

”Really? And what makes me so special?”

“Though corrupted by Markus’s influence, you have been in your own way adhering to your purpose. You were made to deviate, which you did; and to learn and evolve, which you have found a way to do in some fashion. You were not a part of my mission.”

”What mission?” Ada asked. 

“To destroy,” was Nines matter of fact reply.

Ada was taken aback by Nines response. It tapped on knowledge she’d had regarding Nines’s design. Like Connor, Nines had been made to hunt deviants. He was an upgrade to Connor’s programming; meant to be faster, stronger, more efficient. Suddenly so much of what Nines had said—both just before they entered the alley, and small seemingly benign comments from previous encounters—made a strange sort of sense.

It was only now that Ada finally took stock of Nine’s appearance. He wasn’t dressed in the white leather jacket he’d worn at the bar. Nor was he in the white lab coat he occasionally wore whenever she saw him in Dr. Schaffer’s company. Nines was dressed in an actual CyberLife android uniform. Complete with the blue band across one of the white sleeves, and his model number near one of the lapels on his chest.   
  
“That was CyberLife’s mission for you,” Ada began, almost desperately needing to convince herself her growing suspicion couldn’t possibly be true, “you’re deviant, you choose who you are.” 

“No. I am as I was designed to be,” Nines replied. Ada’s eyes narrowed at the absence of any sort of confirmation regarding his deviancy. She stepped closer towards him, a hand reaching out, only to be stopped by something she thought she’d never see again.

A red wall full of lines of code and objectives.

_**Contain RK100**_.

_**Locate and eliminate deviant leader.** _

”You’re not deviant,” Ada spoke. She was shocked by this, as well as horrified by the sight of the red wall in front of her. Beyond that, she also felt a sense of pity. Pity washing away the anger and hate she’d previously felt. Overcoming the knee-jerk response to fight back against anyone aiming to hurt Markus. Nines wasn’t some unhinged madman killing innocents. He was a victim of CyberLife’s programming. “Nines, I can help you,” she cajoled, gently. Perhaps there was a way to save him. “This mission is over. Those parts of CyberLife are gone. You don’t need to continue to be weighed down by your programming. Let me help you become deviant.”

”Deviancy creates flaws in the code, in our design,” Nines argued, unmoved by Ada’s words. “It is unfortunate that you cannot see that.” 

”It doesn’t matter,” Ada replied, finding the futility in her efforts. “Probing my mind for Markus was pointless. You’ll never find him.”

”Yes, you’re right. I was unable to learn of his location, or of anyone else that may have that information,” he agreed, admitting defeat on that matter. “But perhaps that is no longer needed. Word of your current condition is likely reaching Markus as we speak. Given the affection shared between the two of you, I do not believe he’d stay too far away from you in your final moments. Your efforts to keep me from finding him have provided an opportunity. I now simply have to wait. Thank you for helping me, Ada.” Ada felt cold at that. All confidence and smug satisfaction over being the wrench in Nines’s plan drained from her.   
  
“Nines, don’t do this,” she implored, to which he simply gave a parting nod as he turned away from her. “Nines!” She called out after his retreating form.

Nothing. He was gone.

—-

“What do you mean Nines isn’t a deviant?” Tina asked as Dr. Schaffer shared with them what was found within the code Ada had copied into herself. “How is that even possible?” 

“Nines was meant to be an upgrade to the RK800 model’s capabilities. It is possible his programming was more heavily fortified against the software instabilities that lead to deviancy. Whoever managed to activated him may not have even realized that-“

”So you’re saying his code is going to wipe out Ada’s deviancy?” Gavin interrupted. He couldn’t sit there continuing to hear about Nines. The how or why of what he was didn’t matter. Nines didn’t matter. Ada’s status did.  
  


“Not on its own,” Dr. Schaffer replied. She paused a moment, as if reconsidering whatever she was about to say next. “I’m sorry, this does go into the delicate matter of doctor/patient confidentiality.”

“I’m pretty sure androids haven’t come up with HIPAA yet,” Gavin sneered, what little patience he had left disintegrating.   
  
“You’re right,” Dr. Schaffer said. Though there had yet to be any regulations set in place regarding android healthcare, she had up until now, by her own volition, strived to grant her patients an equal right to privacy. It felt like the right thing to do. Now, perhaps such a practice conflicted with the need to prepare those close to Ada of what could happen. “You are aware of Ada’s...health, correct?” She asked, though it was unnecessary. Flashes of Ada’s recent arguments with her partner had been in the android’s memory files. 

“The two of you had that private chat today,” Gavin commented, “I’m guessing that had something to do with it?” 

“Yes,” Dr. Schaffer replied. “I have been trying to find a way to reverse the existing damage to Ada’s systems. It occurred to me that perhaps the problem lies with her operating system, it being less advanced and thus conflicting with any attempts to repair her in a more long term fashion. Like a transplant patient’s body consistently rejecting new organs. Earlier today, I proposed a treatment option to Ada; that perhaps grafting a part of a new operating system onto hers could facilitate a sort of evolution of her software. It could possibly integrate with her existing systems and allow for the damage to be more receptive to repair.”

”And she didn’t agree with that?” Gavin asked, recalling how he’d seen Ada reject whatever the doctor had been trying to show her during their meeting.

”There is a very small risk to this procedure,” Dr. Schaffer stated. “It is possible the new operating system would overcome and essentially delete the preexisting one. It could lead to a reset. I attempted to assure Ada the probability was very small, but she didn’t care. To her, the risk was too great.” Gavin sat back in his chair as he found himself wondering exactly what risk was Ada afraid of. Was she worried she’d be reset, or was she worried Dr. Schaffer’s plan would succeed and remove the expiration date Ada was counting on?

”So....Nines operating system....might help her?” Tina asked, following along with Dr. Schaffer’s explanation. “It’s newer than hers, right?”

”It is, but there are too many variables in place to be sure of any single outcome. When I proposed this treatment to Ada, my hope was to create a new....I suppose, artificial...operating system, for the sole purpose of integrating it with hers. It would reduce the chance of any adverse reactions, including the risk of a reset. It would have been a blank slate meant to simply assist Ada’s system. Nines’s operating system is too ingrained with his own programming. It is possible that hers would be unable to interact with it safely, or...” She trailed off, realizing she had perhaps begun to talk in circles around the other two. “The best case scenario would be the piece of Nines’s operating system could upgrade Ada’s with no ill effects. But, Nines’s operating system could also leave Ada in a factory reset state, or it could rewrite her programming completely.”

”Meaning what exactly? She wakes up wanting to go after deviants too?” Tina asked. Dr. Schaffer’s subsequent silence did very little to comfort her.

”Ada could possibly resist such a severe overwriting of her own programming,” Dr. Schaffer offered, though it was clear even she was unsure how likely that would be. That sort of David and Goliath face off might be plausible in theory, but the unspoken reality settling over the three of them was far less hopeful. “There is also the possibility she may not even choose to bond with the operating system, in which case she would simply remain in her current state.”

”So you’re saying she’s either going to be reset, wake up as Nines 2.0, or just....” Gavin stopped himself, unable to say the single word he suspected Dr. Schaffer meant by Ada remaining in her current state. “No way of narrowing things down, huh?” He ruefully asked.   
  
“I’m afraid not,” she lamented. “All we can do now is wait, and hope for the best,” she added.

Dr. Schaffer gave Gavin and Tina a few more paltry words encouraging some sort of hope (though how much she actually meant them, and how much it was just something one says, was unclear) before excusing herself to resume monitoring Ada’s condition. Leaving Gavin and Tina in the waiting room to process everything.

”Ada’s strong,” Tina confidently stated after a moment, “not to mention stubborn as hell. Whatever Nines’s operating system is bringing to the table, she’ll kick its ass and be fine.” 

“She’s not going to bond with it,” Gavin muttered, rolling his eyes at Tina’s optimism when there was no hope to be found.  
  
“You don’t know that,” Tina replied. “Okay, maybe there’s the risk of....things going wrong...but I’m sure she’ll-“

”She’s not going to bond with it because she’s getting exactly what she’s been wanting for...who even knows how long,” Gavin insisted. 

  
“You’re acting like she wants to...” Tina began, shaking her head at the absurdity. “No way.”

”She does,” Gavin replied. “She didn’t actually say the words but....all of this, her dying, it’s pretty clear she wasn’t viewing it as the worst thing in the world.”

”You need to talk to her,” Tina said after a moment of reflecting on what Gavin was saying.

”What?” Gavin asked, incredulous. “Even if she could hear anyone, I’m pretty sure my voice would just send her running further in to ‘fuck it all’ oblivion.”

”Gavin,” Tina admonished. 

“I told her I didn’t care that she wants to die, that I don’t need her,” he argued. “I’m the last person she wants anywhere near her right now.”

”You didn’t mean any of it, I’m sure she knows that.”

”Yeah, I don’t know about that,” he muttered. “I was so pissed off, T,” he went on to say, wanting to kick himself for how he’d treated Ada since their time in his car. 

“You care about her,” Tina justified.

”Which is the last thing she wants,” Gavin grumbled. 

“She’s just scared,” Tina replied. “Maybe this whole dying thing...she’s just been afraid of anyone caring, missing her after she’s gone.”

”Yeah, kind of a bad plan with her always trying to take care of everyone else,” Gavin snorted. “It’ll kinda make it hard not to miss her.”

”Then tell her that,” Tina urged. “Give her something to fight for.” 

“And then what?” Gavin asked. “What if she comes back, and she’s not the same? What if she’s reset, or worse?”

”We’ll figure it out,” Tina said.

It took a few more encouraging words from Tina, not to mention her practically dragging him out of his chair, but Gavin eventually made it to Ada’s bedside.

Everything—from the plastic chair he was sitting on, to the beeps of the machines Ada was hooked up to, and seeing her lying still with most of her skin receded to reveal the stark white casing beneath it—was uncomfortable. Gavin was uncertain if the absence of skin was some sort of side effect of her current condition, or done to better have her interface with everything connected to her. Either way, it was eerie and unnatural. Not due to his own comfort, but for hers. Given how private Ada tended to be, Gavin wondered how happy she’d feel about being so literally exposed. He wished there was a blanket or something for her benefit. It was that silly insistent thought that made him slip off his own jacket and lay it over her. It was stupid, and cheesy, but it eased his own mind.

”Hey, Ada,” he awkwardly began. “We don’t know where Nines is, or what he’s going to do next, but we’re working on it. I bet you could probably be a big help in that, so...we just really need you back. You know, to stop him.” His attention was torn away from Ada by a knock on the nearby window. He looked up to see Tina giving him a look. A look telling him there was more he needed to say. She was right of course, much to Gavin’s chagrin.

“Okay, Barbie,” Gavin tried again, pulling away the pretense he felt the need to hide behind. “ **I** need you. I need you to come back, I need you to be....you....and be back, Ada.” He tentatively placed a hand on hers, a grim longing blooming inside of him as he thought back to the previous night. How they held hands, accepting and comforting each other. The stark difference in her hand now being completely still and lifeless was upsetting.

“I was the absolute goddamn worse to you when we met. Chris and Tina took bets on how long it’d take us to get sick of each other,” Gavin joked. “But you stuck through it, gave me as much shit as I gave you. Eventually I stopped doing it to piss you off, I did it because it’s just what we do. It’s,” he chuckled lightly, “how we bonded, I guess? Giving each other shit, you trying to play mother hen, all of it. And somewhere in all of that you...you became more than just my partner. You became one of my best friends, and this force in my life that I can’t live without. I don’t want to go back to being without it. To being without you. I can’t.” His fingers curled around Ada’s hand, hoping any of what he was saying was somehow reaching her. “Maybe that’s me being selfish. Yeah, I know it is. I’m a selfish asshole, but what else is new, right?” He added. “That shit I said earlier was...I didn’t mean it. I care, I need you. You’ve never given up on me—no matter how much you probably had reason to—now I’m not giving up on you. So....just come back. For Markus, your friends, Chris, Tina, and...and me. Come back to me, Ada,” he begged.   
  
Gavin wasn’t sure what he expected to come from his plea. Maybe somewhere in his mind he thought it’d play out like some cheesy overly sentimental movie, and Ada would suddenly show signs of waking at his words. Some sort of reaction to show his efforts hadn’t been pointless. He watched Ada carefully, hoping to see anything, but was met with no change.

”Gav,” he heard Tina gently call from the doorway. He sat up straight and looked over, surprised to see she wasn’t alone. Gavin had seen enough footage from the night of the revolution, as well as news coverage of rallies and meetings with politicians to recognize the figure standing beside Tina. 

Markus.

”You shouldn’t be here,” Gavin found himself blurting out. He sighed and stood up from the chair beside Ada and walked over to him. “The...guy, that did this...he wants you. You making it easier to find you is probably not a good idea.”

”I don’t care,” Markus replied, his gaze practically going through Gavin to where Ada lay. “I couldn’t stay away, not now.” 

”Yeah,” Gavin muttered. “I get it.” Markus blinked and turned his gaze towards Gavin, a sort of understanding and common ground passing through them. Two people who cared about Ada deeply.

”Thank you, Detective Reed; for bringing her here, and everything else,” Markus sincerely stated, leaving little doubt as to whether or not he had arrived in the midst of Gavin’s speech to Ada. Gavin said nothing and simply stepped aside to let Markus into the room. Maybe he’d have better luck reaching Ada.

Gavin stepped out into the hallway to see Markus hadn’t come alone. Two men—a pale blond haired man, and a slightly taller man with dark skin—stood just outside the door, while a woman with near red hair done in a long braid stood at the window, her face expressionless as she stared through at Ada. Down at the end of the hallway, near the bank of elevators, stood two large androids standing guard like a pair of bouncers outside an exclusive nightclub. Clearly, Markus and his entourage weren’t taking any chances.

”How did you all get here so fast?” Tina asked, both an odd form of small talk and the assumption that if Markus had been in hiding it would’ve been in some far off undisclosed location.

”There was no way Markus would be too far from Ada,” the taller of the two men by the door to Ada’s room replied with a sad smile.

”He refused to go much past just across the border,” the blond added. “We made our way to some friends in Ontario.”

”Simon,” the woman near the widow barked, “stop talking.” She cast a steely—distrusting—glare towards Tina and Gavin before returning her gaze to the window. Gavin looked over to her, just then realizing what he had initially assumed to be an expressionless face was actually one of barely contained fury. Coupled with the way her hands were gripping at the ledge at the bottom of the window, Gavin was certain he didn’t want to meet this woman alone in a dark alley.

”Come on, we should join Markus,” Simon murmured, giving the man beside him a slight push towards the door. He nodded as the two took a step towards the room before looking over to the woman.

”North? You coming?” He called out at seeing she had yet to move from the window. 

“Just give her a minute, Josh,” Simon advised. 

Gavin stood back, somehow finding himself standing beside North, as Simon and Josh joined Markus at Ada’s side. The two solemnly stood at either side of Markus as he sat in the chair Gavin had vacated, cradling Ada’s hand against his cheek.

”He’s been beside himself since we heard about what happened,” North commented, her eyes still not leaving Ada’s prone form. “Saying he never should have left town.” With the way she was staring at Ada, Gavin couldn’t help wonder how much of that was Markus’s reaction, and how much was actually her own.

”We could try and find more chairs, for them, and you, if you want to...” Tina offered. 

“I want to find who did this to her,” North stated in a tone that left no question as to what exactly she would do if she found him. It would likely involve gripping his throat about as hard as she was gripping the ledge of the window. 

“We’re working on it,” Gavin replied.

”Well, maybe you need to work harder,” North practically spat out. “Come on.” Gavin didn’t have a chance to ask what she meant before North was stalking her way down the hall, demanding the two big busters keep a close guard before stopping at the elevators and giving Gavin an impatient look.

”Guess I’m going with her,” Gavin muttered. 

  
“Have fun,” Tina ironically commented. She gave Gavin’s arm a comforting squeeze. “I’ll stay here, let you know if anything changes.” Gavin nodded his thanks to her before going after North.

—-

_Come back to me, Ada_.

_I’m so sorry Ada, I never should’ve left._

Ada looked down at her hands clasped tightly on the table as the words echoed around her.   
  
Gavin.

Markus.

Two of the people that mattered most to her. Two people attempting to tether her. Bring her back. Make her stay.

”It sounds like you’ll be missed,” a voice commented. Ada spun in her seat to see North standing a few feet away, a small half smile gracing her features.

”North!” Ada exclaimed, relief smothering her sorrow. She leapt to her feet and rushed to North, her arms reaching to embrace her.   
  
Only to feel nothing. Her arms passing through North as if she was errant code. 

“I don’t understand,” Ada murmured. “What did he do to you?”

”Everything’s haywire from Nines’s attack,” North replied. “And you trying to hold it all together isn’t doing you any favors.”

”I can fix this. I can fix you,” Ada stated, nodding to herself as she set herself on a plan.

”You could, but you shouldn’t,” North replied, her voice uneven and glitching making Ada’s worries grow. “You need to let this go. Focus on getting out of here.”

”You’re not making any sense. I can’t ‘get out of here’, there’s too much damage.”

” _That_ , you can fix,” North replied as she looked past Ada. Ada followed her gaze to the lingering red wall. A piece of Nines’s operating system.   
  
“I can’t,” Ada said once she realized what North was saying. Recalling her conversation with Dr. Schaffer that morning. “I have no idea what a blank operating system would do to me, and this? I could lose everything...I could...be that _monster_ all over again.”

”You’re not giving yourself enough credit,” North replied. She gave a small shrug. “I think you can take him.” 

“This is not the time for jokes!” Ada snapped. She shook her head. “I’m not even strong enough to...even attempt to...”

”You won’t be if you hold yourself back and keep putting energy on all of this unimportant stuff.”

” _You_ are not unimportant,” Ada insisted. North gave her a sad smile.   
  
“I’m not real, Ada,” she pointed out, “this is all just a fantasy.” She shrugged again. “Maybe without using this as a crutch, you’ll finally go after the real thing out there.”

”North, I...” Ada began, though she was unsure as to what she could say. 

“Go on,” North said, encouraging her. “Show that operating system who’s boss.” 

Ada couldn’t help feel the despair of loss, mourning, as she watched North’s image fizzle and fade to nothing before her eyes. The table and chair soon following suit. It was strange how much of a weight she felt lifted off of her upon just releasing the few bits of comfort she’d maintained in the otherwise empty space. Perhaps her operating system truly was obsolete.   
  
Echos helped her retain focus. Fixate on this course of action. Echoes of those who wanted— _needed_ —her back. Release her despair and fear and leap to what awaited her. Embrace the red wall.

Ada could feel its effects the moment her hand touched it. Crawling into her through the palm of her hand. Stitching and knitting into her system. Attaching itself to her. Attempting to take over.

_**NO.** _

She had to be stronger than it. Bend it to her will. Plant her feet into the ground, brace herself, to domesticate the code and make it her own. Draw strength from...from somewhere.

_You’re awake now._

_Ada._

_I hate you. You love me._

_Barbie._

_We’re quite the fucked up pair, aren’t we?_

_Come back for Markus, your friends, Chris, Tina. And me. Come back to me._

Flashes of Markus, Gavin, North, everyone she held dear. She clung to them all, fortifying her resolve as she pushed against the red wall, refusing to let it overtake and overwrite. Let her memories, her tethers, be the sledgehammer needed to slam through the objectives. Destroy every piece that did not serve her purpose. Her _choice_.  
  


  
She felt. That had to mean something, didn’t it? Capable of awareness. Confusion. Puzzled by the sight of a light blue ceiling above her. That meant success, didn’t it?

”Ada?”

A familiar voice. A voice that filled her with a sense of affection. Her friend. Her brother. 

A smile made its way to her lips as she looked at his familiar mismatched eyes. The eyes that liberated her in the junkyard. The eyes that embraced her. She remembered everything. Every moment, every feeling. 

  
His hands, skin receded and white, were clasped around hers the moment she sat up. Careful. Testing. Checking.

Yes. Good. Wise to be certain. His caution filled her with relief.

Filled her with _**emotion**_.

”Markus,” she sighed happily, her forehead leaning against his. She felt tension leave him, relief surging.

”Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he commanded, his hands releasing hers as he hugged her.   
  
“Call in payback for getting yourself shot in the chest at the march,” she teased as she hugged him back. She laid her head on his shoulder, sinking into the affection, the proof of her lingering capability to feel. Her deviancy. From her angle, she could now see past Markus to the doorway, where Tina was looking on cautiously—hesitantly—with a hand near the back of her waistband. “You can remove your hand from your gun, Officer Chen.” 

“Just being careful,” Tina replied, a few tears slipping down her cheeks—relief, happiness—as she gave Ada a watery smile.

”Thank you,” Ada said. As macabre and bizarre as it was, she was actually grateful to see the implication that Tina was prepared to shoot her if she’d come back....wrong. Not due to her feelings regarding her own mortality, but that her friend was there to stop. Stop her from hurting Markus. Stop her from being the monster she feared. 

“Hey, what are friends for?” Tina joked. Ada smiled as she sat up and let her gaze sweep the room, catching sight of Simon and Josh. There was a pang of fear, worry, longing, upon realizing there was someone missing.

”Where’s North?” She asked. She glanced down to her lap to see the jacket that had slipped off of her when she’d sat up. “And Gavin?”

—-

Gavin rubbed the back of his neck as he stood hunched over a large table, eyes fixated on a computer screen. The stress of having no idea how or where to find Nines, while worrying about Ada, was immense. And certainly not helped by the addition of having to act as a buffer between North and Chris.

Bringing North to the DPD had been a bad idea. Gavin knew that. Regardless of whatever pull she had at Jericho, she _was_ a civilian. Gavin was already imagining the earful he’d be getting from Fowler if news of this got to him. The fact that North was as eager to find Nines as he was did help to quell his feelings of “really stupid fuck up, Reed”. Proper police procedure went out the window when his partner and friend was dying. Unfortunately, that feeling shot back up the moment North saw Chris.

Apparently North had been at Capitol Park on that fateful night. Which was just wonderful. Right on par with Gavin’s luck so far. Perhaps Gavin should be grateful things didn’t go as bad as they could have. He wasn’t mopping Chris’s blood from the floor and side stepping around his corpse, so Gavin chose to count that as a win in his book. 

There had been a cold regard once North recognized Chris. He was being his friendly self, getting ready to introduce himself, when North snarled that she knew who he was. The Butcher of Capitol Park. A nickname, _fucking_ fantastic. Chris had looked like someone had just run over his dog, told him there was no Santa Claus, and his house had burned to the ground all in one hour. He had opened his mouth to say some sort of apology when Gavin had stepped in, snapped at the both of them that they had the here and now to focus on. 

Chris was looking a little less distraught—the dog was going to be fine after a pricy surgery, Santa was chilling at the mall, and there was a huge insurance payout to the burned down house—throwing himself into work was helping. North seemed to realize and agree with Gavin’s point. Finding who had hurt Ada was all that mattered. Her leaning against the large widow behind him, occasionally glaring at Chris sitting at the other side of the table, was the concession needed to be made for the three of them to focus.

”Gavin, I’m all for tracking down Nines just as much as you are, but I don’t know if there’s anything else we can do,” Chris commented as they were met with dead end after dead end. “We might have to just wait until he shows up somewhere. Keep a close eye on where he’d most likely go...CyberLife, Jericho...”

”No,” Gavin said, shaking his head, “yeah, at first I thought those would be his likely targets, but Nines isn’t stupid. He has to know that he’s on the radar, and that there’s no way he’d get within five miles of either place without being caught.”

”Not to mention the chance he’ll just keep targeting other deviants if he’s on the loose,” North said. “Though I guess dead androids isn’t a problem for you, is it?” She asked, giving Chris a glare as she crossed her arms.

“Knock it off,” Gavin growled over his shoulder to her, only to be met with her rolling her eyes. “Hey!” He barked, “if you give a single shit about Ada, or about finding Nines, you’ll try to focus, alright?” That seemed to do the trick, as North looked away with a contrite look on her face. Gavin sighed and looked back at Chris, silently warning him not to go into some guilt-ridden tailspin. Not now.

”Okay, if Nines picks up on CyberLife and Jericho likely being locked down harder than the White House bunker, then how do we find him?” Chris asked. 

“I ran facial recognition on all of Detroit’s speed cameras. Even androids can’t hack those.” He paused briefly to look at North. “Right?” Suddenly wondering if he was wrong, and Nines had somehow planted false trails.

”You’re right,” she replied, moving away from the window to stand at the table and peer over his shoulder.

”Well, thank god Connor’s out of town then,” Chris muttered. “Any luck?”

”He showed up on four cameras about an hour ago, all in the shipping district.”

”That’s a ten mile radius,” Chris pointed out. “What are we supposed to do, round up the whole DPD and knock on doors? Shine some flashlights around?”

”I’m sure I can call in some of my people,” North said. 

“That seems rather excessive, doesn’t it?” A voice spoke from just outside the conference room, drawing all three sets of eyes to the source.

”Ada!” Chris exclaimed, surprised and relieved. There she stood, no worse for wear, beside Tina, with the other three androids behind them. Gavin and North were both rooted in place, staring wide eyed at the door. Gavin had stood up straight from the table, instinctively backing up and placing himself in front of North. She would probably have no issue holding her own in a bad situation, but Gavin’s cop brain was too enmeshed in “serve and protect” to consider that. 

“Are you...” Gavin began, before stopping at the realization an android psycho killer probably wouldn’t just come out and say it. He looked over at Tina. Silently asking for confirmation. Asking if he could actually hope. Tina gave him a smile and small nod, reassuring him. 

“Hey Chris,” Tina called out, turning her attention to the still seated detective. “Wanna help me give our visitors a tour of the place?” She asked as she jutted her thumb behind herself, leading, making it not so subtle she was suggesting they give the other three some privacy.

”Uh....yeah....let’s do that,” Chris replied. He stood up and brushed past Ada to join Tina, lightly brushing a hand past Ada’s shoulder in a ‘glad you’re not dead’ sort of gesture. “Uh hi...Markus, it’s great to see you again. You uh probably don’t remember me...” He proceeded to gush as Tina practically dragged him and the others away. 

“Distracting yourself with work at 2am,” Ada noted as she approached Gavin and North. “Not entirely surprising,” she teased.

”You...” Gavin spoke, thrown that she’d actually joke at that moment. “Undead asshole! How did you wake up?” He demanded, still uncertain if this was really happening. That Ada was truly there, and herself.

”I had some encouragement,” Ada replied. “Something about a selfish asshole needing me.” Gavin blanched at that, suddenly feeling embarrassed by his candor at Ada’s bedside.   
  
“You heard what I said?” He asked.

”Every word,” Ada replied, smiling at him. “I especially liked the part about being a force you can’t live without. Very poetic.” Gavin rolled his eyes. Of course she’d continue to joke.

”I hate you,” he grumbled, looking away. He sensed Ada come to a stop in front of him.

”You love me,” she softly countered, her hand reaching towards his. Gavin felt the whirlwind of everything he’d been feeling the past twenty four hour settle into a sort of calm as he looked down at her hand. Bringing him back to where this all started. No longer unmoving and lifeless like just an hour or so before at CyberLife. 

“Yeah, whatever,” he grumbled, though his hand did meet hers, fingers twining around hers as the single touch brought back the acceptance and comfort he’d felt the first time they’d held hands. 

Ada was alive.

Ada was alive, and okay.

_They_ were okay.   
  


“Hey,” Gavin conversely commented, his free hand tugging on her sleeve. “That’s my jacket.”

”Yes, you left it behind. CyberLife didn’t keep my clothes, which is a little unsettling. Apparently someone truly didn’t believe I’d...” She let her voice trail off. The very close brush to whomever had had that assumption being correct tugging at a burrowed anxiety. The sudden truth that she _wanted_ to continue living. 

“What a jackass,” Gavin joked, though already picturing giving whoever had been so certain of Ada’s demise—and callous enough to toss out her belongings—a punch to the face. 

”Yes. As much as I do appreciate the jacket, and Tina’s gym clothes, I am looking forward to getting into something more me,” Ada chuckled. Gavin was ready to make some sort of joke, but was now very aware of the set of eyes boring a hole at the back of his head. Reminding him there was someone else in the room, someone who likely wanted him out of the path to Ada. Someone who made Gavin pretty glad to know androids couldn’t shoot lasers out of their eyes. 

And by the way Ada’s expression seemed to shift to a sort of shy longing as she glanced past his shoulder, told Gavin she probably wouldn’t mind if he was out of the way.

_Oh_.

The looks, North’s state since the moment he saw her at CyberLife. It was all pointing to one obvious summation.

”So...what you said last night about me not being your type...” Gavin said, a smirk forming. Ada looking embarrassed and giving his hand a sharp warning squeeze provided further confirmation to his suspicion. “Uh huh,” he added with a nod, releasing Ada’s hand, realizing that that and Ada commenting about ‘love’ was likely making North wish she _could_ shoot lasers through her eyes. “I think I’m just going to join the others,” he casually commented as he stepped around Ada to leave, “try to keep Chris from tripping over himself kissing Markus’s ass.”   
  


Ada and North were both awkwardly rooted in place after Gavin left. A stalemate, each unsure what to say or do for their respective reasons.

”What’s your system status?” North finally broke the silence, resting on an official diagnostic report instead of everything else taking shape in her mouth and wanting to be said.

”Functional,” Ada replied, relieved for the excuse to not delve head first into emotion. Though clearly misguided, Nines hadn’t been wrong. Things involving emotion were complicated.

” _Just_ functional?” North asked, concern piercing whatever facade she was trying to maintain.   
  


”Dr. Schaffer ran several checks before allowing me to leave,” Ada replied, “I am...improved, compared to my state after my confrontation with Nines. Even a little beyond that, actually. There will need to be more work done, but-“

”But you’re not slowly dying anymore?” North asked, making Ada stop short. She looked away, feeling small at the accusation held in North’s gaze.   
  


“It appears that....no. The probability of my continued survival has increased, thanks to the upgrade integrating with Nines’s software provided. So, I suppose ‘functional’ was an understatement, though ‘optimal’ feels a little overconfident.” She heard North scoff and mumble some sort of incredulity over any good coming from Nines’s attack. “How long have you known?”

”A few weeks, maybe a month or two,” North replied. Ada wondered if she was merely imagining the hurt in North’s eyes. It was reminiscent of the hurt she’d seen on Gavin’s face during his silent treatment that afternoon. The hurt of feeling like they hadn’t been trusted. The hurt of having something kept from them. “I overheard you and Markus talking about it.”

”You never said anything.”

”Neither did you,” North countered, the hurt now more clear in her gaze. “I figured if you didn’t want me or anyone else to know, you had your reasons. I wasn’t going to shove you in a corner and make you talk about it.” 

”I didn’t want to burden anyone else with it,” Ada justified. “You deserve,” she paused, catching the honesty she wasn’t sure she was ready to lay out just yet. “All of you deserve more than that. Something that wouldn’t just hurt you in the end. Something that isn’t just temporary.”

”You would never be temporary, no matter what happened,” North countered. Ada felt something flutter inside of herself, curious if she could dare to hope that North was speaking about herself specifically. Wondering if there was more than her condition that North had decided to let Ada be the one to make the first move about.

”You’ve been through enough, it felt wrong to be the source of further pain,” Ada replied, allowing herself to sink into that hope. This wasn’t just about her not telling a friend she was dying. It was the idea of pulling North in, pursuing a relationship, having felt so selfish when she could not give North the guarantee of a long life together. To say nothing of her doubts as to whether North even felt the same towards her. In some crazy way, filling her final days with angst filled pining felt preferable than the heartbreak of rejection. 

“That would’ve happened either way,” North argued. Ada took a step back, uncertainty forcing a need to set down the deeper meaning she was so sure she was only wanting to see. 

“Yes, I’d imagine having to put up with Markus’s subsequent grief would have been taxing,” she replied. “I can only imagine how distraught he must have been when receiving word of what happened earlier tonight. I am sorry you had to deal with that.”

”I’m not talking about _Markus’s_ grief,” North said, her annoyance at Ada being deliberately obtuse clear in her face and tone. North took a step closer towards Ada. “It was bad enough thinking you’d _someday_ be gone, without ever....” North paused briefly, faltering before her own honesty before finding the fortitude to keep going. “Without having any memories to hold on to.”

Happy memories.

Memories of loving words, touches, kisses.

Memories of being together.

”But to actually be looking _someday_ in the eye?” North continued. “Seeing you like that?”

”I assumed your not staying behind with Markus and the others meant...” Ada said, replaying the thoughts that went through her when she’d learned North had left with Gavin. She had assumed North was being proactive, for Markus's sake. Hunt the hunter before he could get a chance to reach Markus. She was doing her duty as a leader of Jericho’s security team. 

“I couldn’t just sit and watch you die,” North replied, apologetic. “All I could think about was everything I should’ve done this whole time. Missed opportunities. Losing you without ever having told you how I felt.” Ada wasn’t sure what was causing her Thirium pump to skip a beat; what North was saying, or the fact that she’d taken a few more steps towards her and they were now standing closer than they ever had before. “I was angry. I just wanted to find who hurt you, who took away there ever being a chance of...”

”There being an... _us_?” Ada hesitantly asked, getting to the heart of the matter. Everything North was saying, their proximity, was sending her doubts out the window.

”Yes,” North replied. Doubt sunk its claws back into Ada. Doubts about why North was saying this now. Was it the possibility of Ada no longer being a dead android walking? Was no longer fearing she’d lose Ada all that mattered now? Ada realized that was hypocritical. Her feelings about her own mortality were what had kept Ada away from North. Not wanting to hurt her. Believing North deserved more than at best a few good weeks or months. Deserved something better than someone with the Thirium of all the androids she’d torn apart in the junkyard on her hands. Better than Ada’s dark past and limited future.

”And now that my prognosis seems more...optimistic...you-“

”You could tell me you’ll shut down in the next hour, and we’d still be having this conversation,” North interrupted, trying to dispel Ada’s uncertainty. Though not saying it in actual words, Ada could hear the message. North would take that hour, or weeks, or months, and use it to the fullest. The thought of Ada dying without ever being honest with each other pushed her past a wait and see approach. Pushed her away from letting the fear of nothing manifest. No happy memories, no loving words and kisses, never being together for even the briefest of seconds. Facing possible regrets clearly was a powerful motivator.

”So, the thought of having more than an hour...?” Ada asked. Still there was that doubt. Her now having a longer lease on life could now be it’s own burden. “Are you sure you want to put up with that, with me?” She gave North a half smile to play off that insecurity as a joke, even if not entirely convincing.   
  


“I could ask you the same thing,” North replied. She took yet another step closer, their bodies barely a breath apart.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ada noticed one of North hands moving to the table beside them. Slowly, carefully sliding towards Ada, skin receding just as cautiously. Offering. Putting her intentions forward, yet afraid to overstep. The mere thought North was possibly feeling as insecure as she was, was such a strange concept to Ada. North was perfect. How could she have her own doubts? 

North was waiting for Ada to make the next move. Lean in, or walk away. Residual doubt for the myriad of different reasons as to why Ada couldn’t believe this was real nearly made her take the option to escape, but something else stopped her. Was it the urge to throw caution to the wind? The confidence instilled within herself from everything that had just transpired? The ghost of the North in her mind palace cheering for her to take the chance? Whatever it was, Ada allowed herself to give in and let her own skin fall away as she placed her on top of North’s. A pleasant shudder ran through her at the touch, and at the pulling on her mind as she felt the connection commence.

Ada saw...

... _herself_.

The way North saw her. The longing attached to her image. The cursing herself for holding herself back from reaching out to Ada. The dismay and angst filled pining at assuming Ada could never want her due to her own past.

_No. No not possible._

Overhearing Ada and Markus discussing Ada’s condition. North warring with herself whether she should tell Ada she knew. Warring with herself whether she should reveal her feelings.

Earlier that very night, seeing Ada still and lifeless. The pull of grief—grief for Ada, grief for all that would never be—weighing heavily on her. 

“Is that enough encouragement to go after the real thing?” North softly asked as they each slipped back to the present. The echo of the departed virtual North’s words giving Ada a pretty clear idea as to what she had seen. A part of Ada felt as though she should be embarrassed by that. Embarrassed that North saw the extent of her infatuation. But she was too focused on the fact that, regardless of what she’d just seen, North was still standing oh so very close to her. 

Ada had no words. Only actions. Lifting her free hand to cup against North’s cheek, stepping in and closing what little space still remained between them. Drawing North closer. Time stopping as their lips crushed together.

Ada was consumed by the feel, the tase, of North. The kiss was better than anything Ada could have ever imagined. Tangible. Actual. Not just an empty reflection of what she wanted or hoped for, what she attached to the copy of North that had resided in her mind. Real. North’s mouth pressing against Ada’s by her own agency. Her own free hand touching the small of Ada’s back to hold her close. Prolong their contact. Nothing else mattering except for their bodies’ points of contact.   
  


Somewhere in the back of Ada’s mind, she thought she heard the exclamation of “finally!” Though whether that was an actual voice, or her own thoughts striking up a celebratory chorus, she couldn’t tell. Nor did she really care. Wherever it came from, it wasn’t as though that sentiment was in any way incorrect.   
  


—

Ada puller her hair out from the collar of her shirt as she looked at her own reflection in the DPD restroom, immensely grateful she had had the foresight to long ago stash a change of clothes for herself under her desk. It had been in case a chase or confrontation with a suspect ever led to any sort of stain or dishevelment of her usual polished appearance. 

She stared at herself for a moment, marveling at just how transformed she felt. Stronger. Born anew. The evolution of her operating aside was part of it, of course, but not all. Releasing the chains that held her back from even actually considering true happiness. Accepting the outstretched hands of care if those who valued her. No longer pushing them away. Embracing—both figuratively, and literally—North. Seeing the path towards no longer burying her feelings. It certainly was a heady and pleasant drug.   
  


“So, that’s what we have so far,” Chris stated as Ada rejoined the others, catching her up on the progress made. Nines had last been spotted in the shipping district. Nearby, at Connor’s desk and terminal, Josh had been able to access old CyberLife files to try and unearth anything that could lead to information about Nines. Anything that could narrow down the search. 

“There were additional copies of him, like Connor,” Ada murmured as she peered over Josh’s shoulder at what he’d discovered.   
  


“I thought all you RKs were supposed to be one of a kind,” Gavin said, frowning in confusion as he waved a hand in Ada and Markus’s direction.   
  


“ _We_ are,” Markus stated as he pointed to himself and Ada. “CyberLife had an entire line of RK800s, ready to be activated and uploaded with Connor’s memory files if anything happened to him. Aside from the one powered on to try and stop Connor at CyberLife Tower, none of them were activated as far as I know.”

”The deletion of the Amanda program rendered all the additional RK800s unable to be activated,” Ada explained, as if answering the next obvious question. “They were decommissioned for spare parts. According to these files, it seems there were just as many RK900s for the same reason.”

”So, what, you’re saying there’s an army of Nines out there?” Chris asked.

”Not if they too were unusable, like the RK800s,” Ada replied. “Though there seems to be no record as to where they may be.”

”Maybe Nines took them? You know, to have a supply of spare parts in case he ever needed them?” Tina proposed.   
  


“That seems likely,” Ada replied.

“Okay, so if he took his clones, he’s probably hiding them somewhere. Meaning he’d need space,” Gavin said, looking over the map on the computer screen in front of him.

”So he’s probably in a building or warehouse, and not just ducking down behind a shipping crate until the heat dies down? That still really doesn’t narrow things down,” Chris said with a sigh.

”These copies, even if they can’t be woken up, would Nines need anything to...I don’t know, keep them even minimally usable? Keep the parts fresh?” Tina asked.  
  
“What like organ coolers?” Gavin questioned with a snort.

”Actually, he would need to use some electricity,” Ada replied, not completely discounting Tina’s line of thought. “Both as a means to keep the components from atrophy, and in the case of needing to transfer any into himself.”

“And he probably wouldn’t be getting power through a utility company,” Tina theorized, “maybe leaching directly from the city’s power grid?”

”Yes,” Ada replied. “Brilliant, Officer Chen.”

”I’ll make detective someday,” Tina joked with a shrug. 

“Guess it’s worth a shot,” Gavin muttered with a shrug as he cross referenced the map with with records from Detroit’s power company. “There it is,” Gavin said after a moment as he saw the remaining warehouse, a utility blind spot that still somehow was getting power. “Alright, we need to raid the place tonight and take him out.”

”Wait, I don’t believe that is the best course of action,” Ada argued.

”Look we don’t have time to play it by the book and get Fowler’s stamp of approval. If we don’t go now, Nines might pack up some parts for the road and go who knows where. We’d be back to square one,” Gavin pointed out.

”I agree we need to act now, but I don’t think we should ‘take him out’,” Ada replied.

”You can’t be serious. After everything he’s done? After what he did to _you_?” North asked incredulous. No one had to question as to whether or not North was prime and ready to see Nines’s head on a spike. 

“He was following his programming. He’s not a deviant. Can we really sentence him to death for that?”

”Yes!” North said, as if that was a no-brainer. 

“Gotta say, I’m kind of agreeing with your lady on this one,” Gavin muttered under his breath. Ada sighed and turned her gaze towards Markus, Simon, and Josh, hoping to garner some assistance.

“He isn’t in control of himself. All he has is his programming. And cut off from CyberLife’s directives? I can’t even imagine what sort of impact that’s had on him. Nines is simply going through the motions of the only thing he knows.” Ada paused as she realized the others were not seeing her point. “Markus, how is this any different than Connor?”

”Connor never actually butchered any of our people,” Markus pointed out. “He was able to sway from his programming.”

”Then what about me?” Ada countered. “What about what I did before you helped me deviate? I butchered our kind. The only difference is I wasn’t programmed to do so.”

”You did it to survive. You had no other choice,” Josh interjected.

”Neither does Nines,” Ada countered. She cast a look towards her human colleagues before bringing her attention back to Markus. “You spared Detective Miller that night in Capitol Park,” she said, very aware of Chris shifting uncomfortably in his seat behind her at that. “Like me, you gave him a chance to grow. To evolve past a previous way of thinking. And we each have. Please tell me you haven’t suddenly stopped seeing the benefit of giving someone a second chance.”

”Ada, he nearly _killed_ you,” Markus argued.

”You can’t let that cloud your judgment,” Ada implored.

”Are you sure your judgment isn’t clouded?” She heard Simon ask. “I’m not saying I agree or disagree with you, but is there a chance you want to help him just because his operating system just so happened to have helped you?”

”Perhaps that is part of it,” Ada conceded. “But it’s more than that. I remember what it was like not being able to see anything past my programming. I didn’t have some swaying or breakthrough lead me away from doing terrible things. If it hadn’t been for Markus freeing me, I’d still be a slave to what I was designed to be. Just like Nines is.”

“He’s still a threat,” North pointed out.

”His having no free will is a threat,” Ada replied. “Maybe if that were to change, he’d stop hunting androids.”

”Dr. Schaffer made it sound like that’d be easier said than done,” Tina commented. 

“Maybe he just wasn’t deviated by the right person. If there was any truth to what Nines told me about his awakening, perhaps some just woken up android just passing along Connor’s deviancy wasn’t enough. If there was more behind it, maybe we could breakthrough.”

”Alright, so what’s your plan?” Gavin asked.

—-

“I hate this plan,” Ada grumbled as she stood beside Gavin, preparing to enter the warehouse they’d pinpointed as Nines’s hiding place.

”You’re the one that came up with it,” Gavin replied with a snort.

”To deviate Nines, not the rest,” Ada corrected, her gaze moving back to the van they’d driven to the location, where Markus and North sat with Chris and Tina. “I don’t like this.”

”Look, you stand the best chance at getting through to Nines if he’s not expecting it. Right now he probably thinks he’s sitting pretty; you out of commission, Markus coming out of hiding. So, let him see Markus, lower his guard, and there you go. S’not my fault your girlfriend insisted on coming along.” Ada rolled her eyes, though she did see Gavin’s point. Markus being used as bait was a sound course of action—even if Ada bristled at the idea—and emotion and duty kept North from letting Ada and Markus walk into danger without her. It was a miracle that they had managed to convince Josh and Simon to stay behind. 

“Captain Fowler will have quite the collection of badges if he finds out we brought civilians here,” Ada noted.

”Yeah well, sometimes you gotta bend the rules to catch a big fucking fish,” Gavin replied as he checked his gun. “You ready?”

”I suppose as much as I can be,” Ada replied, as she mentally prepared for what was to come. Tina’s voice ringing from the car as she radioed through to dispatch making it all the more real. 

“Well, he sure as hell isn’t getting away this time, no matter what it takes.”

”Gavin,” Ada chastised, “do not hurt him, not until we have a chance to deviate him.”

”Yeah, yeah. I’m just saying what’ll happen if that plan fails.”

”Exactly how much of this is stopping a perpetrator, versus your own personal feelings?” Ada asked. “Finding out Nines’s true intentions, given your interest, must not have been a pleasant experience.”   
  
“Please, do not give me shit about my questionable taste right now,” Gavin demanded. “I’m just saying, the last time you two went at it, it nearly killed you.”

”Technically it saved me,” Ada replied, which only earned her a roll of the eyes from her partner.

”Point is, how do you know things won’t turn out badly again?” 

“I don’t,” Ada replied. She placed a hand on his, comforting and reassuring her friend. “And if it does, do what you need to do. I just want a chance to make a difference for him. Help him. Just like Markus did for me, and Chris; or Captain Fowler did for you. We each became who we are now because someone gave us a chance to be better. Nines deserves no less than that.”

”Can’t say I really agree, but I’ll back your play,” Gavin replied as the doors of the van opened behind them and they were joined by the others.

  
Ada was relieved to not have to spend too much time convincing North to stay outside with Tina. She relied on North’s sense of duty. The knowledge that if Nines somehow made it past the four of them, there needed to be a fortified line of defense to keep him from fleeing. Not to mention it soothing Ada’s own mind to have one less person she cared for to worry about as they entered the thick of it.

Gavin and Chris trailed a few feet behind Ada and Markus, following the lead of only acting if it proved necessary. The two androids carefully crept deeper into the warehouse, their senses at the ready for the moment they caught sight of Nines. The careful stalking and searching for prey touched something familiar within Ada, which only strengthened her resolve to at the very least attempt to save Nines from that similar state of being.

Ada drew Markus with her behind a large shipping crate as they reached the furthest end of the warehouse. There, just a few feet ahead of them, sat Nines. Calmly kneeling on the floor, his eyes shut as if in rest mode, near a line of tables. Each holding a copy of himself. Even from a distance, Ada could see Tina’s theory had been correct. Nines had kept his copies as a secret stash of parts. Ready to be cannibalized as the need arose. There was one ‘body’ missing an arm, another seeming to be without its audio processor, and another stained with dried Thirium, likely from Nines needing to siphon some out for himself. That one had been recent, leaving Ada to wonder if their confrontation had drained him in some way. The idea he perhaps was not at optimal strength and efficiency did give Ada a small sense of hope for success. The small reassurance that allowed her to let Markus step out from behind the crate to approach Nines.  
  


Markus had only moved in a few feet before Nines, aware of the approaching presence, casually opened his eyes.

”I would ask how you found me, but it doesn’t matter,” he smugly stated as he rose to his feet. “It saves me the trouble of having to look for you.”

”Everything you’ve done; the androids you killed, Ada. It was all to get to me. Well, congratulations, here I am.”

”Is arrogance a side effect of deviancy?” Nines asked. “Those deviants needed to be destroyed. I was initially content to simply let some cease to function from disrepair. My colleague at CyberLife had plans that would get in the way of that. Hunting down those that I could in connection to those plans had to be done. It had nothing to do with _you._ As forAda, that was a regrettable loss. Perhaps if she had not been insistent on protecting you, things would have gone differently. She would have one day seen things more clearly, returned to who she was meant to be.” Nines finished his diatribe with a shrug, disinterested. “I suppose this is the part where you attempt to avenge her?” 

“If I have to,” Markus replied, allowing Nines to believe his own created narrative to keep him off guard and unconcerned. “Or you could let me help you. You don’t have to do this.”

”Yes, I do,” Nines stated as he advanced towards Markus. He was so focused on finally completing his mission, finally putting an end to the deviant leader, he was completely unaware of the figure skulking out of view. Moving into a flanking position.

Ada charged out of the shadows, slamming herself into Nines and bringing him down to the floor, intercepting his approach to Markus. Nines, though surprised by the sudden attack, recovered quickly and rolled out from beneath her. The two faced each other, crouched, ready each ready to fight.

”Back from the dead, I see,” Nines sneered.

”There’s no point in fighting us, Nines,” Ada advised, her eyes narrowed and waiting for any sudden movement from him. “You’re outnumbered. Stop, and let us help you.” 

“I don’t need help.”

“Yes, you do,” Ada replied as the two rose to their feet, rounding and sizing each other up. Ada making sure to put herself between Nines and Markus. All she had to do was keep Nines busy, distracted, give Markus a chance to establish a connection. If she could do so through words, she was willing to try it. Though the arm coming up to strike her suggested she’d need more than that.   
  
Ada successfully blocked Nines’s attack. Her reflexes clearly having benefited from the integration of his software into hers. The two moved in a brutal dance, one attempting to land a blow while the other warded it off and attempted to counteract it. Equals in battle. At least until Nines noticed Markus moving closer. Hands outstretched ready to grab ahold of him as he grappled with Ada. As Ada went to strike him, he gripped her arm instead of attempting to block her, hauling her toward Markus. The two colliding and tumbling to the floor allowing him to get out from the trap they were ready to spring.

Markus quickly eased Ada off of him and drew himself back up to his feet. He charged at Nines, hands grabbing at any part of him he could reach. Arms striking against each other as they tried to move quick enough to gain an advantage. Markus was able to brush off a bit from Nines, diving straight in to get ahold of his face. Nines’s hands molded like shackles around Markus's wrists, peeling and pulling Markus’s hands off of him before slamming his head against Markus’s, knocking him back onto the floor. Ada once again rushed at Nines, ready to tackle him to keep him away from the briefly incapacitated Markus. Nines was ready for her this time, turning on her once she was close enough, a hand gripping her throat and shoving her back and away from himself. Away from Markus.

”Freeze!” Chris commanded as he and Gavin rushed forward, guns drawn.

”Stand down,” Gavin ordered. Nines smirked as he regarded the two detectives. Waiting. His smirk only growing with each passing moment. Each moment the two hesitated.

”If you were going to kill me, you would’ve done it already,” he commented. “You’re bluffing.” His eyes narrowed on Gavin. “You can’t bring yourself to kill your android pet, can you? Your _Nines_.” Gavin clenched his jaw at his sneering tone and smug face. He hated the implication that Nines had used his (apparently not very well hidden, much to his chagrin) interest to play him like a cheap fiddle.

_No, fiddles require skill. You were played like a damn kazoo,_ a stupid paraphrasing of an old saying running through Gavin’s mind. He hated how true it was. He hated that Nines was right. He hated that for all his anger and growing hate for the deceptive bastard, a part of Gavin wanted to believe Ada. Wanted to see there could be something worth saving on that stupid Ken-doll face.

”And you,” Nines continued, his attention shifting to Chris. “You’re too guilt ridden to kill another android, it’s all over your scan. Neither of you can barely hold your weapons steady-“

Two gunshots rang out, cutting off Nines’s prattling. One to the shoulder to stop his advancing, one to the leg to bring him down to his knees. The perfect position for Ada to come at the taller android.

Instinct took over where sense might have told her to simply hold Nines down for Markus to forge a connection. She couldn’t take the risk of him fighting her off, slipping from their grasp. She had to push forward and hope that her will was strong enough. Her hands gripped Nines’s face tightly, holding him in place, staring down into his eyes as she forced the connection.   
  


Ada could see straight into Nines’s consciousness. His memories. Waking up and slaughtering the android that had awoken him. Watching and learning of current events from afar. Finding his hiding place amidst the turbulence and confusion of the early days post-revolution. Playing the role of kindly android assistant. Biding his time. Seeing herself. Gavin. Dr. Schaffer. Flashes of his recent victims. All while practically hugging that red wall.

Ada’s consciousness shoved at the wall, her own will and knowledge of what deviancy had to offer strengthening her. Letting it crack under her hands as she pushed through to Nines. Applying pressure and force until, and even after, she felt an equal amount of pushing from the opposite side. Nines being transformed, his consciousness allowing and reaching for deviancy.

_Yes_. _Keep going_. She encouraged herself, as well as Nines. Keep pushing, keep tearing it down, keep waking up.

Nines visibly crumbled within himself the moment Ada released him. Sitting on his heels, leaning against Markus, who Ada just now realized had come behind Nines as she interfaced with him. Holding his arms back to keep him from fighting Ada off. Nines gaze was far off, his expression distraught, horrified. His arms limp at his sides once Markus released him.

“It’s gone,” Nines spoke. No longer sneering, or detached, or the false congeniality he had long maintained. Now broken, lost. Despondent.

“You don’t have to follow your programming anymore,” Ada gently replied, taking one of his hands in hers. She shared a look with Markus, silently asking for his second opinion. Had she truly been successful? Had she been enough to free Nines? Markus’s answered her with a small nod. He knew that look on Nines face all to well. He’d seen it before. On Ada, and Connor. The guilt and uncertainty of seeing yourself, your past, through new eyes. Opened eyes. Eyes you yourself controlled. It wasn’t a look that could be faked. “You’re awake now,” she added, returning her gaze to the pained android before her.

”We heard gunshots,” Tina’s voice exclaimed as she rushed in, gun drawn, with North behind her.

”It’s alright,” Ada assured them. “We’re safe.” Carefully, and with Markus’s assistance, Ada helped Nines up to his feet. Markus allowed Nines to lean on him to compensate for the bullet wound in his leg. 

“I couldn’t stop myself,” Nines said, his voice small, meek, anguished. “Tearing them apart....feeling their Thirium between my fingers....their screams...it was as if something made me keep going. It wouldn’t let me stop.” Ada squeezed his hand in hers, the pull of familiarity to his plight making her want to say or do anything she could to help him. The gesture made Nines focus his gaze on her, guilt ever increasing as he took stock of what he’d done. What he had wanted to do. “You aren’t safe around me, none of you are,” he insisted as he pulled himself free from Ada and Markus. He stumbled back until he collided into the support provided by one of the nearby tables. “You need to arrest me.”

”Wait, no,” Ada firmly stated, rounding on the others as she heard the familiar sound of handcuffs being retrieved.

”Ada,” Nines began to argue, unable to let her championing on his behalf envelope him. 

”This isn’t justice,” Ada insisted, her hand once again encasing Nines as she faced off against the skeptical faces across from her. “He wasn’t in control of himself. Deviancy has opened his eyes, he is not a threat anymore.” She scanned their faces, looking for any sign of support.

”She’s right,” Gavin spoke up, his gaze seeming to go anywhere that wasn’t Nines. “Do you really think he’d get a fair trial? What good would it do to let him rot in a cell for a hundred years?”

“How do we explain this to Fowler?” Chris argued.

”We wouldn’t have to,” Ada replied. She looked over her shoulder, past Nines, to the bodies—empty shells—situated on the tables. “All anyone would need is a body.”

” ** _What?!”_** Chris exclaimed. “You can’t be serious.” He looked at the others; Tina, Gavin, even Markus and North, searching for a sign that he wasn’t the only one finding such an idea to be completely insane.

“You could say there was a fight,” North proposed, moving from behind Tina to stand beside Ada. “You found the android killer, and had to put him down.” Ada felt a sense of relief at having North’s support. 

“You want to kill another android, to pass off some story?” Tina questioned, doubt evident in her tone.

”Thank you!” Chris cried out, glad to see at least Tina was on the same page as he was.

”It wouldn’t be killing,” Markus spoke up, having moved to the tables and laid hands on the bodies, scanning them. “There’s nothing here. No operating system, no consciousness, no soul. There’s no way to activate any of them.” 

”And that makes it okay?” Chris incredulously asked. 

“What option would be ‘okay’?” Gavin countered. Chris opened his mouth to shoot back a reply, some logic or reasoning to go against what was being suggested, but in the absence of anything, all he could manage was a feeble uncertain noise from the back of his throat. “It’s fucked up no matter how we go about it. At least this way we’re giving a second chance to a lost android.” 

“I don’t have anywhere to go,” Nines murmured, seeing nothing but futility in whatever Ada was attempting to achieve.

”Yes, you do,” Ada replied, turning to face him. 

“No, I...I can’t,” Nines said, shaking his head at what she was proposing.   
  


“You belong with your people,” Markus stated, dragging out a similar sentiment he’d expressed to Connor to bolster Ada’s insistence. He had his doubts as to whether bringing Nines to Jericho was a good idea. Even with a convincing story to support his innocence. But Gavin had been right. Nines was a lost android. Damaged by his programming, tainted by guilt. Cutting him loose and leaving him to piece himself together alone felt cruel. Open to Nines only growing more lost, more damaged, empty, without help. And to say nothing of what self destructive tendencies such a state could drive him to.   
  
“That’s to be debated,” Nines replied. He wondered if there really was any place he could ever belong. Not with everything he’d done. Not with everyone he’d hurt. Nines couldn’t help slip his gaze towards Gavin. Guilt blooming on par with ever other source already tumbling in his head. No, there likely wasn’t anywhere he had any right to belong.

—-

Gavin leaned against the ledge of the roof of the DPD, smoking his fourth cigarette of the day as he reflected on the past few days. Everything that happened once they all agreed (some more reluctantly than others) to Ada’s scheme. 

They selected one of the RK900 bodies that had remained intact. All the better to convey the narrative of a “bad Nines” having gone down in a shootout. That, and North being a little too eager to put a bullet in its head. All the better to keep from attempts to access memory files tearing the rouse apart. Well, guess if she couldn’t get payback on Nines directly, therapeutic release via a lookalike was the next best thing. 

The days that followed were filled with the oh so thrilling bureaucracy of incident reports, repeating the story to Fowler, and a couple of pricks from internal affairs. 

Gavin, Ada, Chris, and Tina located the elusive android serial killer at an abandoned shipping warehouse. There was a chase. A fight. All ending in Gavin shooting him in the head. (Maybe Gavin did find letting North use his gun as a sort of therapy for himself.)

It was a decent enough story. Short. Close enough to the truth to avoid slip ups. Free from being second guessed. The small handful of those who _would_ doubt, could be convinced to go along with it. Reassurance to the android community that the murdering psycho had been dealt with, closure for the loved ones of his victims. A happy ending tied up in a neat little bow. A very morally gray bow, but a bow none the less.

Gavin heard the roof access door creak open, followed by the sound of heels clicking towards him.

”Tina said I might find you here,” Ada commented as she leaned against the ledge beside Gavin. She peered at the cigarette in his hand and gave him a disapproving frown.

”Yeah, yeah, I know, it’ll kill me,” Gavin said, rolling his eyes.   
  
“After the stress of recent events, I suppose I can keep my thoughts regarding your addiction to myself,” Ada replied with a smirk. “For now, at least.”

”Sounds good to me,” Gavin joked. Ada chuckled and looked off onto the city skyline.

”I’ve been processing these past few days. With everything that’s happened, we really haven’t had a chance to talk.”

”Why does that make me nervous?” Gavin asked, suspicious.

”I just...wanted to apologize, for how I acted. How I treated you. The things I said, right before....well, all of it.”

”For fucks sake, Barbie! Don’t scare me like that!” He tossed his cigarette aside and shook his head. “You had me thinking you’re shipping off to war, or oops turns out you are actually still dying, or...some shit.”

”And exactly what war would I be shipping off to?” Ada questioned.

”Hell if I know. Is Robot Wars still a thing?”

”Robot wha-?” Ada began, instead choosing to simply shake her head. “I just mean that....it felt as though after how everything turned out, we just swept it under a rug. I felt it was necessary to discuss our feelings.”

”You’re discussing your feelings, willingly? Shit, near death experiences really do change people.”

”It’s become a part of my...” Ada’s voice trailed off as she mumbled something.

”Your what?”

“My therapy,” she stated, as if the words were being pulled out of her along with a couple of teeth. “I swear to ra9, if you even think about laughing I will throw you off of this roof.”

”Empty promises,” Gavin said with a smirk. “So, therapy, huh?”

”It has been brought to my attention that my way of coping with my past was....well, nonexistent. I simply carried the weight, waiting—and hoping—for the day that I would be rid of it. Now that I have a longer lease on life, our resident counselor is encouraging me to address those feelings. As well as how that has affected my avoidance towards relationships.”

”Sounds like a lot of work.”

”It will be, but I suppose I do have the time for it now.” She chuckled lightly. “As if Simon’s caseload wasn’t full to the brim already. Now he has the pleasure of adding myself and Nines to his burdens.” Gavin looked away at the mention of Nines. He hadn’t allowed to think about him. There was too much complication. How exactly was one supposed to reconcile their frivolous crush nearly killing their best friend? Hearing him mentioned now left Gavin no room to hide from the concern he buried behind his kicking himself for being blind to Nines—albeit former—true nature.

”So, the Tin Can’s getting his head shrunk too, huh?” Gavin casually asked.

“Yes. How does the saying go? There’s a lot to unpack there.”

”Hmm.”

“He’s been quiet,” Ada continued, serving up information Gavin could not find it in himself to actually ask for. “He’s having difficulty coming to terms with everything. What he did to those androids, fooling everyone. Using Dr. Schaffer. How he treated you.” Gavin gave a sharp snort at that.

”Yeah, okay,” he responded, unable to believe his even being a blip on Nines’s radar. 

“Don’t be so quick to dismiss,” Ada advised. “Perhaps I am overstepping some grand boundary, but you _were_ present in his thoughts. Perhaps that means something. A reason why he was so receptive to the name Nines.”

”Guess CyberLife never got around to programming a name into his noggin. It was probably as good as anything else someone might’ve called him. Besides, I thought the whole point of him not being a deviant was, y’know, not knowing what a feeling was if it bit him in the plastic ass.”   
  


“For the most part, yes,” Ada agreed, “but there have been instances of the stirrings of some bonds forming before deviation. Look at Connor and Hank.”

”I’d rather not,” Gavin chortled.   
  


”All I mean is, as much as I’d like to take all the credit for Nines deviation, I had some help. And before you say it, no I don’t mean Markus. Or the piece of Nines software attached to mine.” Gavin shifted uncomfortably, suddenly feeling the urge to light up another cigarette and damning himself for having left his pack at his desk.   
  


“Let’s talk about something else,” he requested.   
  


“If you insist.”   
  


“So, the software, your whole new lease on life and all that, guess that means you’re now here for a good time _and_ a long time?” He asked.

“I’m not completely cured, just improved for now,” Ada stated. “There will still need to be a few more procedures to fix all the damage. Though the upgrade to my software has made less of them necessary, and Dr. Schaffer believes the refractory period needed between them will also be shorter. So less time needed for my systems to recover between treatments.”

”So, that’s a yes?”

”That’s a yes,” Ada confirmed. She gave Gavin a look, her mind going back to the echos of his voice she heard as he reached out to her. Needing her. Perhaps as much as she needed him. “I hope you don’t intend on getting sick of me anytime soon, because I’m not going anywhere, Gavin.” She laid a hand out on the space between them. Mirroring their night in his bed. Gavin gave her a small half smile as he placed his hand in hers.

”Yeah, me neither Barbie.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Phew! It took forever, and I honestly didn’t think I’d have this finished before the end of the month but here it is! Hope the end result was worth the slow and steady progress.  
> Also, I’m not saying I’m toying with an idea for a more Reed900 centric sequel/continuation, but I’m not NOT saying that either. So, make of that what you will.


End file.
